Jakarta – The sun or the sun is the star at the center of the solar system. It is almost spherical in shape and consists of hot plasma mixed with a magnetic field.
Chemically, about three-quarters of the sun’s mass is made up of hydrogen, while the rest is dominated by helium. The remaining mass (1.69%, equivalent to 5,629 times the mass Earth) consists of heavy elements such as oxygen, carbon, neon, and iron.
according to scientist, the Sun is just one of more than 100 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. Scientists estimate the Sun is still young compared to other stars, born about 4.6 billion years ago.
Like most other stars, the Sun is made mainly of hydrogen, then helium. The rest comes from 7 elements, namely oxygen, carbon, neon, nitrogen, magnesium, iron and silicon.
Earlier this year, the Parker Solar Probe was closest to the Sun, 18.6 million km. It was launched last August 2018 to examine the Sun as closely as possible.
Here are some unique and interesting facts about the sun.
Spectacular Giant Furnace
This extraordinary image of the Sun is sent by “Solar Orbiter” from a distance of 77 million kilometers to Earth. Never before has the image of a small eruption on the Sun been so clear at such high resolution. The spacecraft will, among other things, examine eruptions on the Sun.
Giant Nuclear Fusion Reactor
In principle the Sun is a giant nuclear fusion reactor. Inside the core, the pressure and temperature are extremely high, causing Hydrogen atoms to fuse into Helium atoms by releasing enormous amounts of energy. To illustrate: a fingernail of material from the Sun generates energy equivalent to the energy from burning 1000 tons of coal.
One Hundred Times Bigger Than Earth
From Earth, the Solar System’s central star appears to be as small as a glowing soccer ball. Though the diameter of the Sun reaches 700,000 kilometers. At its core the temperature of the Sun reaches 15 million degrees Celsius, while on the surface it is much “colder” at around 5500°C
The Magic Sunpoint
Sometimes the Sun is dotted with dark colored dots that can last tens of days. Since ancient times, humans have observed this dot. Italian scientist, Galileo Galilei in 1610 made a protocol related to the sun’s dot. Now it is known, that the dark area is the surface of the sun with a very strong magnetic field.
Solar Storm Full of Dangers
If solar activity is very strong, solar storms are created, in which charged material is hurled very far into space. Particles can hit satellites and cause interference with navigation, power supplies or cellular communications signals on Earth.[]
(Erlangga)
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