what we view as the surface of the sun is called the course hero

What is the surface of the Sun called?

the photosphereThe part of the Sun we call its surface – the photosphere – is a relatively cool 10,000 °F (5,500 °C). In one of the Sun's biggest mysteries, the Sun's outer atmosphere, the corona, gets hotter the farther it stretches from the surface.

What are the surface features of the Sun?

The visible "surface" of the Sun, called the photosphere, sits atop the interior layers. The Sun also has an atmosphere, with a lower region called the chromosphere and an upper section known as the corona. Numerous features, with lifetimes of seconds to months, appear on the Sun's surface and in the solar atmosphere.

Is the surface of the Sun plasma?

It is, as all stars are, a hot ball of gas made up mostly of Hydrogen. The Sun is so hot that most of the gas is actually plasma, the fourth state of matter. The first state is a solid and it is the coldest state of matter. As we heat up a solid it becomes liquid.

What is the surface of the Sun made of?

Composition of the Sun Because it is made of gas, the Sun does not have a solid surface. This plasma is mostly comprised of hydrogen and some helium in the Sun's core.

What surface feature of the Sun emits most of its light?

photosphere, visible surface of the Sun, from which is emitted most of the Sun's light that reaches Earth directly.

Why is the Sun called a star?

Sun- the star of our solar system is a star because it produces energy by the fusion reaction of Helium turning into Hydrogen. Our Sun is an average-sized star: there are smaller stars and larger stars, even up to 100 times larger. The Sun is composed almost entirely of hydrogen and helium gas.

Is there a surface on the Sun?

“Technically, there is no surface of the Sun,” says UW–Madison's Sanjay Limaye. The senior scientist and educator with the Space Science and Engineering Center explains that unlike the hard, physical boundary here on Earth, the Sun's surface is a hot mass of gas that is more or less continuous with its atmosphere.

Why is the Sun a plasma?

The sun is made up of a blazing combination of gases. These gases are actually in the form of plasma. Plasma is a state of matter similar to gas, but with most of the particles ionized. This means the particles have an increased or reduced number of electrons.

How hot is the surface of the Sun?

5,778 KSun / Surface temperature

What is happening on the surface of the Sun?

The Surface: On the surface of the Sun, gases move in a rolling motion called convection. These convection cells can be seen as solar granules that are several thousand miles across, and change shape within a few minutes. You can see the same kind of motion by looking at the water in a boiling pot of water.

Why does the Sun have no surface?

The Sun is a giant ball of plasma (electrified gas), so it doesn't have a distinct, solid surface like Earth. Sunlight that is created by nuclear fusion in the Sun's core (center) gradually works it's way outward, colliding over and over with atoms in the Sun's interior.

Why is the surface of the Sun so cool?

While its core temperature is millions of degrees Kelvin, the Sun is embedded in essentially empty space whose temperature is only a few degrees Kelvin. Heat flows from hot (in this case, very hot) to cold (again, in this case, very cold!).

What are 5 features of the Sun?

Five Characteristics of the Sun1 – The Sun Is Just Your Normal, Average Star. ... 2 – The Structure of the Sun Is Layered. ... 3 – From a Human Perspective, the Sun Is Really, Really Big. ... 4 – The Sun's Surface Activity Is Cyclical. ... 5 – The Whirling Sun's Magnetic Field.

What are five features of the active Sun?

Seven features of the active Sun are sunspots, plages, flares, filaments, prominences, coronal holes, and coronal mass ejections.

What are the layers and features of the Sun?

The inner layers are the Core, Radiative Zone and Convection Zone. The outer layers are the Photosphere, the Chromosphere, the Transition Region and the Corona. IRIS will focus its investigation on the Chromosphere and Transition Region.

What are 4 unique characteristics of the Sun?

Unique Facts About the SunSize and Age. The sun is 109 times wider than the Earth and 330,000 times heavier. ... Composition and Structure. The sun is completely gaseous. ... Temperature. The temperature at the photosphere is approximately 10,000 degrees F. ... Rotation. ... Sunspots. ... Solar Flares.

Which region of the Sun contains jet-like projections that stick up into the transition region?

The Sun's chromosphere contains many jet-like projections that stick up into the transition region. These spikes of gas are called:

What is the Sun made of?

As astronomers have learned more about the structure of the Sun, they have found that it. a) is made of billions of individual pieces of hot rock, all orbiting around each other in a whirling arrangement. b) has a small solid core inside. c) is made entirely of liquid, with a tiny bit of hot gas on the outside.

How long does it take for the Sun to fusion?

If it takes an average of 14 billion years before any proton inside the Sun will undergo fusion, and the Sun is only about 5 billion years old, why do astronomers believe that fusion is going on there now?

Where are the bright clouds in the chromosphere?

When we use the light of atoms such as hydrogen and calcium to examine the Sun's outer layers, we can see bright "clouds" in the chromosphere right around the location of sunspots. These bright clouds are given the name:

Where can solar wind particles be captured?

Solar wind particles can be captured by the Earth's magnetosphere. When these particles spiral down along the magnetic field into the atmosphere, they are responsible for:

Can a spaceship catch solar wind?

Recently, some engineers and scientists have proposed building spaceships with enormous "sails" that catch the solar wind and use it to move the ship. What kinds of particles would be hitting this sail (i.e., what is the solar wind mostly made of):

Is the Sun a gas?

The Sun is an enormous ball of gas. Left to itself, a ball of so many atoms should collapse under its own tremendous gravity. Why is our Sun not collapsing?

Sunspots

Sunspots appear as dark patches in the solar photosphere. These are areas where strong magnetic field has emerged from below the solar surface. The strong magnetic field suppresses the release of heat into the photosphere making sunspots cooler than their surroundings.

Filaments

Sometimes magnetic field in the solar atmosphere holds up solar plasma from the chromosphere into the solar corona. The filaments are held up in a kind-of magnetic hammock. The relatively cool filament material appears dark when observed against the bright solar disk.

Prominences

Prominences are really just the same thing as filaments only viewed from a different perspective. Filament are seen on the solar disk however filament are very high up in the solar atmosphere, way above the surface. So when a filament is on the edge of the Sun the filament sticks out with space instead of the solar surface behind it.

Coronal Holes

Coronal Holes are areas on the Sun that appear dark when observed in Extreme Ultraviolet and x-ray light. They are regions where the magnetic field on the solar surface opens up into space making it easier for coronal material to escape.

Solar Waves

Scientists analyzed sunspot images from a trio of observatories -- including the Big Bear Solar Observatory, which captured this footage -- to make the first-ever observations of a solar wave traveling up into the sun’s atmosphere from a sunspot. Credits: BBSO/Zhao et al