HowStuffWorks "The Parts of the Sun"
[http://www.howstuffworks.com/] SUBSCRIBE Adventure Animals Auto Culture Entertainment Health Home & Garden Lifestyle Money Science Tech Video Shows Quizzes Engineering Environmental Science Forces of Nature Innovation Life Science Military Physical Science Dictionary Science Vs. Myth Space Transportation Home / Science / Space / Astronomy / The Solar System More Stuff Like This 10 Scientific Words You're Probably Using Wrong 10 False Science Facts Everyone Knows Puzzle: Nerve Cell How the Sun Works by Julia Layton and Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D. Page 1 Introduction to How the Sun Works 2 The Parts of the Sun 3 The Sun's Interior: Core 4 The Sun's Interior: Radiative and Convective Zones Figure 1. Basic overview of the parts of the sun. The flare, sunspots and the prominence are all clipped from actual SOHO images. Photo courtesy SOHO consortium. The Parts of the Sun The sun is a star, just like the other stars we see at night. The difference is distance -- the other stars we see are light-years away, while our sun is only about 8 light minutes away -- many thousands of times closer. Officially, the sun is classified as a G2 type star , based on its temperature and the wavelengths or spectrum of light that it emits. There are lots of G2s out there, and Earth's sun is merely one of billions of stars that orbit the center of our galaxy , made up of the same substance and components. The sun is composed of gas. It has no solid surface. However, it still has a defined structure. The three major structural areas of the sun are shown in the upper half of Figure 1 . They include: Core -- The center of the sun, comprising 25 percent of its radius. Radiative zone --The section immediately surrounding the core, comprising 45 percent of its radius. Convective zone -- The outermost ring of the sun, comprising the 30 percent of its radius. Above the surface of the sun is its atmosphere, which consists of three parts, shown in the lower half of Figure 1 : Photosphere -- The innermost part of the sun's atmosphere and the only part we can see. Chromosphere -- The area between the photosphere and the corona; hotter than the photosphere. Corona -- The extremely hot outermost layer, extending outward several million miles from the chromosphere. All of the major features of the sun can be explained by the nuclear reactions that produce its energy, by the magnetic fields resulting from the movements of the gas and by its immense gravity. It begins at the core. Print Cite This! Close Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks article: Layton, Julia, and Craig Freudenrich, Ph.D.. "How the Sun Works" 17 October 2000. HowStuffWorks.com.
14 August 2014. Citation & Date Feedback Page 1 Introduction to How the Sun Works 2 The Parts of the Sun 3 The Sun's Interior: Core 4 The Sun's Interior: Radiative and Convective Zones 5 The Sun's Atmosphere 6 The Sun's Features: Sunspots, Solar Prominences and Solar Flares 7 The Fate of the Sun 8 Lots More Information More To Explore All Things Science 10 Incredible Wind Power Facts 10 Remarkable Exoplanets Fact or Fiction: Earthquakes Top 10 Things That Women Invented Strange, Spooky, Scary: The Supernatural Quiz Watch 100 Greatest Discoveries videos » You Might Also Like How the Moon Works The moon is often the largest object in the sky outside of the sun. What is the moon made of, how did it form -- and why do people blame it for their strange behavior? How Stars Work When you look up at night and see thousands of stars, have you ever wondered what you are looking at? Learn what stars are and how they live and die! Popular Articles Could we stop an asteroid on a collision course toward Earth? Cancer Aquila Most Popular Most Watched Most Popular 10 Reasons Why Tesla Is a Scientific God Strange, Spooky, Scary: The Supernatural Quiz 10 Heaviest Objects Mankind Has Ever Moved How Hydraulic Machines Work 10 Correlations That Are Not Causations Most Watched How to Make (Almost) Everything Understanding Bridges How do they do it? Why aren't the keys on my computer in alphabetical order? The Most Important Things So Far, Seriously Don't Miss Stuff You Should Know: Demystifying Your World Stuff Mom Never Told You: All Things Women and Gender Stuff You Missed in History Class: Fact or Fiction? CHECK OUT OUR PODCASTS HOWSTUFFWORKS NEWSLETTER THE LATEST AND GREATEST SUBSCRIBE HOWSTUFFWORKS Adventure Animals Auto Culture Entertainment Health Home & Garden Lifestyle Money Science Tech MORE STUFF Blogs HSW Tools RSS Maps Podcasts Quizzes Newsletters Video HSW Brazil HSW China STUFF WEBSITES BrainStuff CarStuff Fw:Thinking Stuff Mom Never Told You Stuff of Genius Stuff They Don't Want You to Know Stuff to Blow Your Mind Stuff You Missed in History Class Stuff You Should Know CUSTOMER SERVICE Advertising Contact Us Help CORPORATE About Us Careers @ HSW Privacy Policy Visitor Agreement TAKE US WITH YOU FOLLOW US Copyright © 1998-2014 HowStuffWorks, a division of InfoSpace LLC