(ORDO NEWS) — Do you know how far the Sun is from Earth? And how does it manage to burn without oxygen? These and other questions were answered by an expert from BBC Science Focus Magazine.
We all know that the Sun is located at the center of the solar system. Moreover, this celestial body accounts for more than 99 percent of the total mass. And that is not all. Here are seven curious facts about this object.
1- The distance from the Earth to the Sun is approximately 149.6 million kilometers. Sunlight reaches the earth’s surface after about 8.3 minutes. The Earth’s orbit is elliptical, so from the closest point to the Sun, the distance will be about 147 million kilometers, from the farthest – about 152 million kilometers.
2- The sun does not need oxygen to burn. In fact, solar energy is created using various thermonuclear reactions. Most of this energy is produced by the fusion of hydrogen into helium. It happens in the core of the sun.
3- The sun has a radius of 696,342 kilometers. This is about 109 times the radius of the Earth. In other words, more than 1.3 million Earth-like planets could fit inside the Sun.
4- The temperature of the Sun’s surface (photosphere) is 5500°C. The temperature of the core is 15 million degrees Celsius. The Sun also has an outer atmosphere, and its temperature is about 2,000,000°C, and sometimes even 20,000,000°C.
5- The true color of the Sun is white. The human eye perceives it as yellow due to the fact that the Earth’s atmosphere scatters blue light better than red. Due to the lack of blue color, it seems that the Sun has a yellow tint.
6- The Sun has a weak magnetic field. True, it is still stronger than that of the Earth: 2-6 Gs versus 0.25-0.65 Gs. For comparison: the strength of the magnet, which is attached to the refrigerator, is approximately 100 gauss.
7- The age of the Sun is about 4.57 billion years. It is believed that it will “burn” for about 5 billion more years.
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