What are interesting facts about the sun? The sun as we all know is a giant red shiny ball of fire hanging over the earth’s sky. But do you know that the sun is more than just a ball of fire? The sun has a lot of Amazing facts that attracted humans to study its shape.
Based on the gathered information about the sun, scientists and astronomers were able to discover several unique facts about the sun. The following 10 Amazing Facts about the Sun will make you love the sun even better.
1. Sun’s Outermost Atmosphere is More burning than its Surface
The temperature that exists at the surface of the Sun cannot be compared with the temperature in its outer atmosphere. To be specific, the surface temperature of the sun is about 6,000 Kelvin. While the temperature of the sun’s outermost atmosphere is about 100,000K.
Keep in mind that the outer atmosphere of the sun is known as the chromosphere. The Sun also has a distant region known as the corona. The temperature of the corona can reach 1 million Kelvin and it has a volume that is larger than the sun itself.
2. The Sun has Mixed Colors which Appear White to Our Eyes
When you gaze at the sun from the earth, you will see a giant yellowish ball of a star shining on our beautiful system. However, the sun is not yellowish.
If you can observe the sun with a telescope, you will realize that the sun will appear white to your eyes. What is the Color of the Sun? The Color of the Sun is White. Although the sun produces all the rainbow colors, we still call this combination of colors white, as it appears white to our eyes.
3. Sun Comprises Different Parts that Rotate at Different Speeds
The sun occupying almost every part of the solar system is literally big. As a result of its gigantic structure, the sun consists of several regions that move at different unique speeds.
The inside part of the sun takes 27 days to complete its rotation around its orbit. The regions at the poles take about 36 days to complete their revolution, while the equator of the sun takes about 25 days to rotate around its orbit.
4. The Sun Occupies 99.8 percent of the Solar System
With the gigantic size of the sun, one can comfortably say that the Sun is the Solar system. If you remove the sun from the middle of the solar system, you will discover that other planets and celestial bodies are only occupying 0.2 percent of the solar system.
To be specific, most of the 0.2% remaining actually comes from Jupiter. Considering the mass of earth to that of the sun and Jupiter, it appears as if we barely exist in this solar system.
5. The Sun has Increased by 20 Percent since its Formation
Has the sun stopped increasing? The answer is simple. The sun has continued to increase since its first formation around 4.6 billion years ago. To be specific, the sun has increased by 20 percent since its first formation.
This implies that the sun’s actual size is 20 percent bigger than the young sun that was created about 4.6 billion years ago. Scientists have continued to live in fear, as the sun will never stop increasing anytime soon.
6. The Gravitational Force Holds the Sun Together
A star with a diameter of 1.3927 million Km requires a strong gravitational force to hold itself together. Without the force of gravity acting on the sun, the giant star will never exist in the first place.
Aside from holding the sun together, gravity keeps all the planets locked to the sun’s orbit. So how does it actualize this? The sun’s gravity also attracted all the planets in the solar system to revolve around the sun.
This implies that if you remove the sun’s gravitational pull, all the planets will be flying into deep space. Hence, the role of gravity cannot be ignored.
7. About One Million Earth Could Enter Inside the Sun
The Sun’s total Surface area is about 11,990 times greater than the earth’s. Hence, when you compare the size of Earth to that of the sun, you will discover the huge difference between the Celestial Bodies.
Scientists have estimated that if the sun is made hollow, it could contain about 960,000 Earth perfectly. But after filling up this gap, there will remain some space around the sun. If you want to fill the hollow sun, you will have to force more earth to occupy the remaining space.
If you proceed with this action, then about 1,400,000 Earths will fit the hollow Sun perfectly.
8. The Sun is Orbiting the Milky Way
As planets move around the sun, so does the Sun orbit the Milky Way Galaxy. The Sun is moving at 220km per second. This implies that it will take the sun millions of years to complete an orbit around its home Galaxy.
To be specific, it takes the Sun about 225 to 250 million years to complete a circuit around the Milky Way Galaxy. 250 million years may appear great before our years, but our billion years old Sun has completed orbit several times even before the existence of human civilization on earth.
Before the Sun completes the next orbit, hundreds or thousands of human civilizations must have passed on earth.
9. The distance between the Earth and Sun is not Constant
Like most Celestial bodies within the Solar System, the earth revolves around the sun in an elliptical orbit. This implies that the earth does not revolve around the Sun in a perfect circular movement.
The distance between the Earth and the Sun ranges from 147 to 152 million Km. The average distance that separates the Sun from Earth is 93 million miles (150 million Km). This is equivalent to One Astronomical Unit. To be exact, one astronomical unit is equal to 92,955,807 miles or 149,597,871 kilometers.
10. The Sun will Consume Earth Billions of Years into the Future
130 million years from now, the sun will expand and consume mercury as its helium-burning phase will increase. Since its formation, the sun has increased by 20 percent.
It will continue to increase billions of years into the future. NASA revealed that the sun will likely consume earth in about 5 to 7.5 billion years from now. At this point, the sun will run out of hydrogen and die.
At this point, the sun will become a giant red star. Although some scientists have revealed that the earth may survive the devastating impact of a dead sun, the experience will still be challenging to future human civilization. Maybe, humanity may have expanded at that time to become an Intergalactic civilization.
Conclusion
Learning about the interesting facts about the sun will upgrade your knowledge about the only star in our planetary system. Keep in mind that space agencies have sent several space probes to explore the sun and return realistic data to earth. From these space missions, we will learn other interesting facts about the sun and upgrade this list. Which of these interesting facts about the sun do you like most?
