10. Foci of the solar system
Medium-sized star (gives of energy in the form of light ,
heatand other types of radiation).
1,400,400 km indiameter
85% brighter than all other stars in the entire Milky Way
galaxy
2/21/2017 By: Melody A. Akiatan
15. Temperature: 15, 000, 000 ⁰ C.
Composedof: Hydrogenand heliumgases. (Iron,
carbon, oxygenand neon)
2/21/2017 By: Melody A. Akiatan
16. HOT PLASMA
Temperature: 15, 000, 000 ⁰ C.
Composedof: Hydrogenand heliumgases. (Iron,
carbon, oxygenand neon)
2/21/2017 By: Melody A. Akiatan
17. -hot ionized gas consisting of
approximately equal numbers of
positively charged ions and
negatively charged electrons. The
characteristics of plasmas are
significantly different from those of
ordinary neutral gases so that
PLASMA
2/21/2017 By: Melody A. Akiatan
19. PHOTOSPHERE
• Deepest layer of the Sun.
• 250 miles (400 km).
• 6500 K at the bottom and
4000 K at the top (6200
and 3700 degrees C).
• Covered with granulation.
2/21/2017 By: Melody A. Akiatan
28. CORONA
• Outermostlayer of the Sun,
• 1300 miles (2100 km) above the
photosphere.
• 500,000 K (500,000 degrees C) or more,
up to a few million K.
• The corona cannot be seen with the
naked eye except during a total solar
eclipse.
2/21/2017 By: Melody A. Akiatan
48. Atmosphere shieldsus from harmful ultraviolet
rays of the sun and protects us from meteors that
actually burn upeven before they strike the surface.
2/21/2017 By: Melody A. Akiatan
49. The Earth whizzes along spinning
in space at 67,000 miles an hour.
We can’t feel it spinning. Yet is
makes one complete turn every 24
hours.
2/21/2017 By: Melody A. Akiatan
89. Activity: WORD SEARCH
Pattern: Vertical, Horizontal,
Inverted, Slanting
(13 WORDS)
At the one whole sheet of paper, write the definition of the word for at
most two sentences.
2/21/2017 By: Melody A. Akiatan
91. 2/21/2017 By: Melody A. Akiatan
B P H O T O S P H E R E H A M
N B U L E O U D C S I H A L U
O S Y O M G N C X E M I H B I
L C T D E I Y V X R U A E L
S E C N E N I M O R P B R D R
O B D Y V M E P N G R E O O E
D T O P S N U S M T H T T A D
N O I L E B I R E P E G A T A
C Z P G O R A I S O T E T M R
E F S W L A H O F N Y W I O O
U O D A I R M T D O U E O S R
R R R P U O T O S O K R N P U
T E O A R B E P W M N K T H A
S V F H G O S S Q U I M Y E U
R E C O P E R N I C U S I R J
U R A P B E L I O N S U M E K
Editor's Notes
Because of its extreme temperature, matter cannot exist as solid or liquid.
Because of its extreme temperature, matter cannot exist as solid or liquid.
The photosphere is the visible surface of the Sun that we are most familiar with. Since the Sun is a ball of gas, this is not a solid surface but is actually a layer about 100 km thick (very, very, thin compared to the 700,000 km radius of theSun).
The coolest of the Sun's several layers is the photosphere, which is the outermost visible layer, according to Astronomy Know How. Temperatures in this layer are usually around 5,780 degrees Kelvin.
Granules on the photosphere of the Sun are caused by convection currents (thermal columns, Bénard cells) of plasma within the Sun's convective zone. The grainy appearance of the solar photosphere is produced by the tops of these convective cells and is called granulation.
Sunspots are temporary phenomena on the photosphere of the Sun that appear as dark spots compared to surrounding regions. They are areas of reduced surface temperature caused by concentrations of magnetic field flux that inhibit convection. Sunspots usually appear in pairs of opposite magnetic polarity.
a spot or patch appearing from time to time on the sun's surface, appearing dark by contrast with its surroundings.
Those who live at or visit high latitudes might at times experience colored lights shimmering across the night sky. Some Inuit believed that the spirits of their ancestors could be seen dancing in the flickering aurora. In Norse mythology, the aurora was a fire bridge to the sky built by the gods. This ethereal display – the aurora borealis or aurora australis, the northern or southern lights – is beautiful. What causes these lights to appear?
Our sun is 93 million miles away. But its effects extend far beyond its visible surface. Great storms on the sun send gusts of charged solar particles hurtling across space. If Earth is in the path of the particle stream, our planet’s magnetic field and atmosphere react.
When the charged particles from the sun strike atoms and molecules in Earth’s atmosphere, they excite those atoms, causing them to light up.
What does it mean for an atom to be excited? Atoms consist of a central nucleus and a surrounding cloud of electrons encircling the nucleus in an orbit. When charged particles from the sun strike atoms in Earth’s atmosphere, electrons move to higher-energy orbits, further away from the nucleus. Then when an electron moves back to a lower-energy orbit, it releases a particle of light or photon.
What happens in an aurora is similar to what happens in the neon lights we see on many business signs. Electricity is used to excite the atoms in the neon gas within the glass tubes of a neon sign. That’s why these signs give off their brilliant colors. The aurora works on the same principle – but at a far more vast scale.
WHAT ARE NORTHERN LIGHTS?
The bright dancing lights of the aurora are actually collisions between electrically charged particles from the sun that enter the earth's atmosphere. The lights are seen above the magnetic poles of the northern and southern hemispheres. They are known as 'Aurora borealis' in the north and 'Aurora australis' in the south.. Auroral displays appear in many colours although pale green and pink are the most common. Shades of red, yellow, green, blue, and violet have been reported. The lights appear in many forms from patches or scattered clouds of light to streamers, arcs, rippling curtains or shooting rays that light up the sky with an eerie glow.
WHAT CAUSES THE NORTHERN LIGHTS?
The Northern Lights are actually the result of collisions between gaseous particles in the Earth's atmosphere with charged particles released from the sun's atmosphere. Variations in colour are due to the type of gas particles that are colliding. The most common auroral color, a pale yellowish-green, is produced by oxygen molecules located about 60 miles above the earth. Rare, all-red auroras are produced by high-altitude oxygen, at heights of up to 200 miles. Nitrogen produces blue or purplish-red aurora.
A prominence is a large, bright, gaseous feature extending outward from the Sun's surface, often in a loop shape. Prominences are anchored to the Sun's surface in the photosphere, and extend outwards into the Sun's corona. While the corona consists of extremely hot ionized gases, known as plasma, which do not emit much visible light, prominences contain much cooler plasma, similar in composition to that of the chromosphere. The prominence plasma is typically a hundred times more lit and denser than the coronal plasma. A prominence forms over timescales of about a day and may persist in the corona for several weeks or months, looping hundreds of thousands of miles into space. Some prominences break apart and may then give rise to coronal mass ejections. Scientists are currently researching how and why prominences are formed.
The red-glowing looped material is plasma, a hot gas composed of electrically charged hydrogen and helium. The prominence plasma flows along a tangled and twisted structure of magnetic fields generated by the sun’s internal dynamo. An erupting prominence occurs when such a structure becomes unstable and bursts outward, releasing the plasma.
A typical prominence extends over many thousands of kilometers; the largest on record was estimated at over 800,000 kilometres (500,000 mi) long[1] – roughly the radius of the Sun.
As the Earth orbits round the Sun it tilts very slightly and so gives us the seasons. When the Earth has tilted so that the northern half of the Earth is a little away from the Sun, the northern hemisphere (meaning half of the Earth’s sphere) has winter.
At this time the southern hemisphere is tilted very slightly towards the Sun and the southern hemisphere has summer. Winter in Britain means summer in New Zealand. Closer to the Equator there is much less difference between summer and winter.
Have you ever wondered why the Earth is tilted instead of just perpendicular with its plane of orbit? Scientists have taken a crack at answering that question. The main consensus is that it has to do with Earth’s formation along with the rest of the planets in the Solar system. This time in cosmic history is still a mystery to us but we do have some ideas about what went on. We know that the birth of the Sun created a new source of gravity in the young Solar System. The tidal forces between the young sun and the rest of the nebula the Sun was born from created further instability in the gases and dust left in the nebula. This allowed for the steady formation of the planets.
After millions of years passed enough matter collided to gain mass and its own gravity and become small versions of planets called planetessimals and protoplanets. These pre-planets collided to create even larger planets. This set the stage for how the Earth approached its final form. It looks like it probably collided with a another proto-planet and in the process it was tilted.
All the same the Earth’s tilt is very important. It is perfectly positioned so that it gives us the seasons and on top of that the seasons are near perfectly calibrated for life. When compared with other planets Earth’s tilt allows for season that are not too extreme in temperature but are pretty well balanced. At the same if it had stay in the “perfect” position one side of the Earth would be too hot at time and then too cold.
We have written many articles about the Earth’s tilt for Universe Today. Here’s an article about why Earth has seasons, and here’s an article about the Earth’s axis.
If you’d like more info on Earth, check out NASA’s Solar System Exploration Guide on Earth. And here’s a link to NASA’s Earth Observatory.
We’ve also recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast all about planet Earth.