Sun and Solar Cycles

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Sun and Solar Cycles

Introduction

The Sun is the prime star comprising the solar system. The sun is about 5 billion years away from earth. The temperature of sun's surface is about 5500 °C; nonetheless, the temperature of sun's middle layer is approximately 14 million °C. The core of the sun transforms hydrogen into helium, due to this process of conversion; a huge amount of energy released is released from the sun. This energy is responsible for the extensive temperature of the sun. There are not sports found on the surface of the Sun like Moon due to the temperature, flares and massive ejections of matter. In 1610, Galileo followed the movement of sun with his new telescope, and thus laid the foundation concerning sunspots and solar cycle.

The study introduced by Galileo has continued for almost 400 years. Currently, many solar stations continuously monitor and record all the changes on the surface of the Sun that are responsible for the changes in solar system. The solar cycle is most often determined by the number of sunspots on the photosphere, which is characterized by a special index (Wolf Number). Since the Sun is the prime star controlling the changes and anomalies in the solar system, this paper will enlighten the detailed information regarding the Sun along with the solar system in order to enlighten the related details.

Solar Cycle

Area of the Sun

The sun is a ball of gas inflamed with a diameter greater than 109 times the diameter of Earth. Its capacity is therefore over one million times larger than the volume of earth. The yellow light coming from the sun is originated from its photosphere. The thickness of the atmospheric layer is about 500 km. In addition, there are two other layers one below called the interior of the sun and the other above termed as the transparent outer layer. Practically, Earth's solar energy, heat and light come from the photosphere; nonetheless, all these sources of energy are produced in the Sun. Photosphere temperature is about 5500 °C (Mcfadden, Weissman, Johnson, 2007, 66-85).

The Sun's surface is restless due to the process in which hydrogen is converted into helium. The restless behavior of Sun's surface is also termed as the solar granulation. It can be noticed only by telescopes. The convection heat generated from the Sun transfers from the lower layers of the Sun to the photosphere and is responsible for the grainy surface structure. In 1960, astronomers discovered that the outer atmospheric layers and also revealed that the Sun vibrates. Studying these vibrations, astronomers expect to discover the solar interior (Hoyt, Schatten, 1997, 119-126).

Interior of the Sun

The scientists of the twentieth century imagined the Sun as burning star. Even in 1892, different studies described the Sun as a stove like star emitting heat and light. Another nineteenth-century theory suggested that the light coming from the Sun during daytime is caused by the sun falling meteorites. Nonetheless, the fact is that the Sun is a star filled ...