Sol (The Sun)
Also known as our sun. What can we say about that big bright object that dominates our day? We love it's warm glow and are fascinated buy it's motion accross our sky. How about:
- The Sun and Sol are names that come from language so old ther is no other definition for it.
- It is the center of the Solar System (hence the name).
- All of the planets revolve around the Sun.
- It is made of gas (air).
- The sun is a star.
- It is so big it could hold all the planets, moons and other stuff in our solar system.
The Sun was originally a dark cloud of gas made up of mostly hydrogen and helium. All this stuff creates gravity and this gravity pulled it all together. When there was too much pressure from everything pulling together fusion began. Fusion is what creates the light and heat from the Sun. The Here are some of it's statistics:
| Size: | |
|---|---|
| Volume: | 1.412×1018 km3 |
| Diameter: | 1,390,000 km |
| Mass: | 1.989 x 1030 kg |
| Temperature: | 5800 K (surface) |
| 15,600,000 K (core) | |
| Other Info | |
| Age: | Approximately 4.5 billion years |
| Composition: | 70% Hydrogen, 28% Helium, 2% Everything Else |
What more can we say about our Star?
- It has a huge corona, which makes for great eclipses.
- It makes a mean solar wind, for those who like Solar Sailing.
- Not to mention the terrific Solar Storms for messing with the media!
- The Romans celebrated the Sun's birthday on Sol Invictus which is thought to be the same day as Christmas.
The sun also has dark spots on it that are slightly cooler than the rest of the sun's surface. These are caused by variations in the sun's magnetic field which is incredibly powerful and twisted. It twists in loops that the burning fires folow out from the surface and burst out into space when the loops break (called solar storms). The activity of these spots and solar storms increases and decreases on a regular 11 year cycle called the Solar Cycle.