The Sun Flashcards
(14 cards)
Sun is made up of…
Hydrogen, helium, and oxygen!
Made through nuclear fusion.
Inner Parts of Sun
Core, radiative zone, convective zone!
Inner Parts of Sun: Core
Center of the sun, hottest part!
Site for nuclear fusion!
Inner Parts of Sun: Radiative Zone
Layer next to core!
Solar material is hot and dense!
Thermal radiation transfers heat of core outward as electromagnetic radiation!
Inner Parts of Sun: Convective Zone
Turbulent plasma between star’s core and photosphere!
Convection transfers heat!
Hot plasma rises, cools then falls to get hot and rise again…
Outer Parts of Sun
Photosphere, chromosphere, corona!
Outer Parts of Sun: Photosphere!
Site of sunspots and solar flares!
Lowest layer of sun’s atmosphere, where sun’s energy is released as light.
Light reaches Earth in 8 mins.
Outer Parts of Sun: Chromosphere
Emits reddish glow as super-heated hydrogen burns off!
Outer Parts of Sun: Corona
Visible only during total solar eclipse!
White plumes of ionized gas, flowing into space.
Can get up to 3.5 million degrees F, and becomes solar winds as it cools
Protons and electrons may for, magnetospheric plasma and cause aurora by poles!
Solar Events
Sunspots, solar flares, prominences, aurora!
Prominences
Flames of gas shooting outward from chromosphere!
Sun farts. Basically.
Can last up to 3 months?
Solar Flares
Sun spit, according to Ky.
Jets of fire that shoot out for a few seconds from photosphere. Produce bursts of electromagnetic radiation, radio waves, UV radiation, and X-rays.
Sunspots
Magnetic field lines pierce the sun’s surface, and these are relatively cooler than rest of photosphere.
Class of Star of Sun?
Low mass, G2V main sequence!
Yellow dwarf!
