The next time you get burnt red from being outside too long spare a thought for how powerful that ball of energy is that dominates the daytime sky.
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The Sun produces poem-worthy sunsets and as much energy as 1 trillion megaton bombs every second!
“The Sun is a star, just like the other stars we see at night, and it’s big”, said Dave Reneke from Australasian Science magazine. “The Sun would hold the earth a million times over and it’s been “burning” for almost 5 billion years.”
Hang on, we say the Sun burns, but it doesn’t burn like wood burns. Instead, the sun is a gigantic nuclear reactor.
The temperature at the surface of the Sun is about 5,600 Celsius, in the centre a whopping 15 million degrees Celsius. Feeling sweaty yet?
As you read this, the Sun is going through quite an active period and only last month we saw sunspots, cool areas on the Sun, up to 5 times bigger than the Earth. Solar flares were seen shooting away up to 100,000 kilometres in length. And, there’s more on the way!
Want to see sunspots for yourself this weekend? “It’s easy,” said Dave. “Just punch a hole through a piece of thin cardboard with a large knitting needle, point it at the Sun and hold a sheet of white A4 paper below. Sunspots will appear. Congratulations, you’ve just made a pin-hole projector.”
Another safe way is to turn your back to the Sun and holding your binoculars outstretched with one hand, aim them at the Sun. See the image projected back onto a screen, wall, or large piece of white paper that you’re holding in your free hand. It should be situated about 30cm from the binoculars’ eyepiece.
“Just move the binoculars around until the sunspots appear sharp, but don’t look at the Sun directly OK. The further you hold the card away from the eyepiece, the larger the image will be. Good luck,” Dave added.
BY THE WAY …
Ever wondered what would happen if the Sun suddenly disappeared? We’d have no idea it had gone for 8.5 minutes. We’d still see it as an eerie sight, lingering, like a ghost in the sky.
As soon as the last of the sun’s light reached us eight and a half minutes after the sun itself disappeared, the sun would blink out and night would fall over the entire Earth. Not until that instant would Earth sail off in a straight line into space. Sleep well tonight.
