Do you want to know what the sun is made of?

A star named Sun is the only one in our system. Around it revolve other objects, among which the planet Earth, where we live. And given the incommensurable importance of this heavenly body for the existence of all life, including man on Earth, it is important and know what the Sun consists of and how many more years it can shine.

Worship of the Sun and its study

Since ancient times, people have noticed that the main role played by this star for all living things. Many ancient cultures deified the Sun, there was a cult of worship to it. It was revered as a deity, in ancient Egypt, in pre-Columbian America. And some of the greatest constructions of mankind are dedicated to the Sun: Stonehenge in England, Chichen Itza in Mexico, for example. And given the solar location, built the Egyptian pyramids. It is interesting that ancient Greek astronomers considered the Sun to be one of the planets, along with the Earth. Of course, at that time no one had guessed what the sun was made of. So, for example, the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras considered him to be made of metal (for which, by the way, he was thrown into prison and sentenced to death). And the idea that all the planets revolve around the center, which is the given star, was expressed by scientists of Ancient India (and almost simultaneously - Greece), but was revived and developed by Copernicus already in the 16th century.

Modern science

Modern science, of course, went far ahead. Scientists have calculated the mass of this celestial body, its estimated volume, and the distance to the Earth. Observations are conducted visually with the help of powerful modern telescopes, capable of increasing so that everything is visible, as in the palm of your hand. With the help of artificial satellites launched into appropriate orbits, priceless materials are extracted, which contribute to a more detailed study. Now it is already known with precision about what the Sun consists of. And also it became clear to the scientists of the "sunsets" and its qualitative and configuration composition.

Internal structure

Our star has a layered structure. It should be noted that its mass is more than 99% of the total mass of the entire solar system (by comparison, it is 330 000 times the mass of the Earth). According to the spectral classification, the Sun belongs to the "yellow dwarf" type. The core is the central part where thermonuclear processes pass (the radius is more than 150 thousand kilometers). There is a very high temperature - over 14 million degrees, and the substance reaches a huge density. Energy and heat in the core are generated through this reaction, and the rest of the sun's surface is heated by them. What does the core of the sun consist of? Since a thermonuclear reaction takes place at the center of the star, and hydrogen, which occupies the largest part in the composition, burns out, then scientists believe that there is more helium (64%) and less hydrogen (up to 36%).

What the Sun Is Made of

Well, that's about the core. And the sun itself basically consists of hydrogen. Its 92% of the volume, and by weight - 73%. The next element is helium (7% of the volume). Other elements are also present: iron and nickel, oxygen and nitrogen, sulfur and magnesium, calcium and chromium, and some others - that's what the Sun consists of.

The two main layers

Two main layers can be distinguished: internal and atmospheric. The internal consists of three parts: the core, the energy transfer zone, the convection zone. The atmosphere of the sun consists of three parts: the photosphere, the chromosphere and the crown.

Energy transfer by means of rays and convection

In the zone following the core, the thermonuclear energy produced by the nucleus of the star is transferred to the upper layers of the Sun. The temperature decreases gradually, and the wavelength increases. This segment occupies 0.3 to 0.7 of the total radius from the center. Convective zone, located next, carries out energy transfer by means of the convection process.

The atmosphere of the sun

The photosphere is the visible surface of the Sun. It sends out spectral beams into the surrounding space. Its thickness is only 200 kilometers. And above it is a layer of the chromosphere, which has a thickness many times greater - up to 20,000 kilometers. There, gases are constantly falling and rising, moving. In the chromosphere, prominences sometimes appear, protruding beyond the surface to 250,000 kilometers, visible even from the Earth. Sometimes a substance collected in a prominence overcomes the solar attraction and breaks into open space. The solar corona, as it were, completes the construction of the Sun itself, rising by 2 million kilometers. The view of the crown is not always the same and is associated with periods of star activity.

sunny Wind

From the crown, a stream of particles that ionizes constantly flows. These are mostly protons and electrons, called the solar wind. They spread to the very limits of the solar atmosphere. Radiation reaches a myriad of particles per second. And their loss for a yellow dwarf makes for millions of years a mass equivalent to the mass of such a planet as, for example, the Earth. Such phenomena as the northern lights or geomagnetic storms on Earth are directly related to the effect of the solar wind.

The Sun and Life on Earth

For people, animals and plants that live on the Earth, the Sun and the light emitted by it is a very important thing. In those places where the rays fall in a limited quantity, a small variety of biological forms is noted, shortening of the growth season for plants, and the shortness of species. Sunlight is the basis for photosynthesis. And the chlorophyll contained in the leaves of plants is one of the main conditions for the origin of life on Earth, according to most scientists. And many species of animals (and man) exist, thanks to eating plants and accumulating solar energy in organisms. Another important factor for the existence of all living things is the ultraviolet radiation of the sun, with which vitamin D is produced. But from the excess ultraviolet radiation our planet is protected by the ozone layer, without whose participation, as the researchers believe, life forms could not get out on land From the waters of the World Ocean.

To explain what the Sun is made of, for children, is not difficult. But in order to understand the features of the structure of a huge star, such as this one, it is necessary to represent that infinite volume of the gas volume that is concentrated in one place of the solar system. And to put it more simply, the Sun consists, for the most part, of hydrogen and helium. These gases are very light, but the star itself is very heavy and weighs like 330,000 planets identical to the Earth. And the temperature to which these and other elements, which are part of the composition, are heated up to 15 million degrees. Many data on the composition of the star by modern scientists were obtained by spectral analysis of the sunlight that reaches the Earth, and are quite accurate.