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| SPLASH! | OBSERVING THE SUN | IMPORTANCE OF THE SUN | EXTRA INFORMATION | HALL OF FAME |
About the SunThe Sun is the star, and like all the other stars in the visible sky at night, it is a ball of extremely hot gases that shines with its own light and gives of its own heat. Unlike the other stars, however, with the distance of 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) away from the Earth, the Sun is relatively the closest star to our planet. Light from the sun takes 8 minutes to reach the Earth, while the light from Alpha Centauri (which is 250,000 times farther the distance between the sun and Earth) takes about four years. Since the sun is close to Earth, astronomers can study it more easily than the other stars allowing them to learn great details about stars that they could only imagine otherwise. Astronomers could also study the sun with great interest because of its importance to our planet. This is because, as we have already known, the sun’s heat and light are necessary to all life on Earth, any changes in how much the light and heat the sun produce could have tremendous consequences for everything on Earth. Information that you might find in this website about the Sun includes:the History of the SunScientists estimate that the Sun is about 4.55 billion years old, about the same age as the Earth and the other planets, meaning it is quite young in comparable to the age of the universe, which is thought to be more than 15 billion years old. They feel that they comprehend some of the details of how the Sun and planets were formed from observing how similar stars are being formed today. Scientists think that the Sun and all the nine planets condensed long ago out of the swirling cloud of dust and gases. Somewhere within the cloud, dust and gases were pushed tightly together perhaps because of the disturbance of a passing star. This dense region wielded a strong gravitational pull on nearby dust and gases in space, causing all of these materials to come together until a large mass was formed. Gravitational forces caused the center of this collapsing mass to become hotter and hotter, eventually reaching a temperature so great that the mass began to generate its own energy. Thus, the Sun is born. By then, the surrounding dust and gases dissipated, leaving the newborn Sun surrounded by smaller condensing masses that became the Earth and other planets. Even though the Sun has shone steadily for more than 4.55 billion years, it will not live eternally. After 5 billion years or so, the sun will begin to expand and will become cooler and redder, so that it will change into what is known the Red Giant star. The sun will expand further until it becomes more that 100 time its present size. When this happens, the Sun will gulp down the inner planets, including Earth along with the life forms remaining in it. Material in the Sun's outer regions will gradually drift off into space because gravitational forces will not be strong enough to seize the material once it drifts to such a great distance. In time, much of the remaining material in the Sun will also squander, leaving behind only a tiny hot core, and cores of such stars, known as white dwarf stars, can be observed throughout the universe. |
