TheInfoList

The Sun is the
star A star is an astronomical object consisting of a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its own gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the n ...

at the center of the
Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...

. It is a nearly perfect
sphere of a sphere A sphere (from Greek language, Greek —, "globe, ball") is a Geometry, geometrical object in solid geometry, three-dimensional space that is the surface of a Ball (mathematics), ball (viz., analogous to the circular objects in two d ...
of hot plasma, heated to by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the
energy In physics Physics (from grc, φυσική (ἐπιστήμη), physikḗ (epistḗmē), knowledge of nature, from ''phýsis'' 'nature'), , is the natural science that studies matter, its Motion (physics), motion and behavior thro ...
mainly as visible light and
infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from the n ...
radiation. It is by far the most important source of
energy In physics Physics (from grc, φυσική (ἐπιστήμη), physikḗ (epistḗmē), knowledge of nature, from ''phýsis'' 'nature'), , is the natural science that studies matter, its Motion (physics), motion and behavior thro ...
for
life Life is a characteristic that distinguishes physical entities that have biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from those that do not, either because such functions have ceased (they have died), or becaus ...
on
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. About 29% of Earth's surface is land consisting of continent A continent is one of several large landmasses. Generally identified by con ...
. Its diameter is about , or 109 times that of Earth. Its mass is about 330,000 times that of Earth, and accounts for about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System. Roughly three quarters of the Sun's
mass Mass is both a property Property (''latin: Res Privata'') in the Abstract and concrete, abstract is what belongs to or with something, whether as an attribute or as a component of said thing. In the context of this article, it is one or mo ...
consists of
hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol H and atomic number 1. With a standard atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest element in the periodic table. Hydrogen is the abundance of the chemical elements, mos ...

(~73%); the rest is mostly
helium Helium (from el, ἥλιος, Helios, lit=Sun) is a chemical element Image:Simple Periodic Table Chart-blocks.svg, 400px, Periodic table, The periodic table of the chemical elements In chemistry, an element is a pure substance consisting ...
(~25%), with much smaller quantities of heavier elements, including
oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen Group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly Chemical reaction, reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing ...
,
carbon Carbon (from la, carbo "coal") is a chemical element Image:Simple Periodic Table Chart-blocks.svg, 400px, Periodic table, The periodic table of the chemical elements In chemistry, an element is a pure substance consisting only of atoms ...
,
neon Neon is a chemical element with the symbol A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, Object (philosophy), object, or wikt:relationship, relationship. Symbols allow people to go b ...
, and
iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is Abundance ...

. The Sun is a G-type main-sequence star (G2V) based on its stellar classification, spectral class. As such, it is informally and not completely accurately referred to as a G-type main-sequence star, yellow dwarf (its light is closer to white than yellow). It formed approximately 4.6 billionAll numbers in this article are short scale. One billion is 109, or 1,000,000,000. years ago from the gravitational collapse of matter within a region of a large molecular cloud. Most of this matter gathered in the center, whereas the rest flattened into an orbiting disk that formation and evolution of the Solar System, became the Solar System. The central mass became so hot and dense that it eventually initiated nuclear fusion in its solar core, core. It is thought that almost all stars Star formation, form by this process. The Sun's core fuses about 600 million tons of hydrogen into helium every second, converting 4 million tons of mass–energy equivalence, matter into energy every second as a result. This energy, which can take between 10,000 and 170,000 years to escape the core, is the source of the Sun's light and heat. When hydrogen fusion in its core has diminished to the point at which the Sun is no longer in hydrostatic equilibrium, its core will undergo a marked increase in density and temperature while its outer layers expand, eventually transforming the Sun into a red giant. It is calculated that the Sun will become sufficiently large to engulf the current orbits of Mercury (planet), Mercury and Venus, and render Earth uninhabitable – but not for about five billion years. After this, it will shed its outer layers and become a dense type of cooling star known as a white dwarf, and no longer produce energy by fusion, but still glow and give off heat from its previous fusion. The enormous effect of the Sun on Earth has been recognized since prehistoric times. The Sun was The Sun in culture, thought of by some cultures as a solar deity, deity. The Synodic day, synodic rotation of Earth and its orbit around the Sun are the basis of solar calendars, one of which is the Gregorian calendar, the predominant calendar in use today.

# Name and etymology

The English language, English word ''sun'' developed from Old English ''sunne''. Cognates appear in other Germanic languages, including West Frisian language, West Frisian ''sinne'', Dutch language, Dutch ''zon'', Low German ''Sünn'', Standard German language, German ''Sonne'', Bavarian language, Bavarian ''Sunna'', Old Norse ''sunna'' and Gothic language, Gothic ''sunnō''. All these words stem from Proto-Germanic *sunnōn.Vladimir Orel (2003
''A Handbook of Germanic Etymology''
Brill
This is ultimately related to the word for "sun" in other branches of the Indo-European language family, though in most cases a nominative stem with an ''l'' is found, rather than the genitive stem in ''n'', as for example in Latin ''sōl'', Greek ἥλιος ''hēlios'', Welsh ''haul'' and Russian солнце ''solntse'' (pronounced ''sontse''), as well as (with *l > ''r'') Sanskrit स्वर ''svár'' and Persian خور ''xvar''. Indeed, the ''l''-stem survived in Proto-Germanic as well, as *sōwelan, which gave rise to Gothic ''sauil'' (alongside ''sunnō'') and Old Norse prosaic ''sól'' (alongside poetic ''sunna''), and through it the words for "sun" in the modern Scandinavian languages: Swedish and Danish ''solen'', Icelandic ''sólin'', etc. In English, the Greek and Latin words occur in poetry as personifications of the Sun, Helios and Sol (Roman mythology), Sol , while in science fiction "Sol" may be used as a name for the Sun to distinguish it from other stars. The term "Sol (day on Mars), sol" with a lower-case 's' is used by planetary astronomers for the duration of a solar day on another planet such as Mars. The principal adjectives for the Sun in English are ''sunny'' for sunlight and, in technical contexts, ''solar'' , from Latin ''sol'' – the latter found in terms such as ''solar day'', ''solar eclipse'' and ''Solar System'' (occasionally ''Sol system''). From the Greek ''helios'' comes the rare adjective ''heliac'' . The English weekday name ''Sunday'' stems from Old English ''Sunnandæg'' "sun's day", a Interpretatio germanica, Germanic interpretation of the Latin phrase ''Dies (deity), diēs sōlis'', itself a translation of the Greek ἡμέρα ἡλίου ''Hemera, hēmera hēliou'' "day of the sun".

# Sunlight

The solar constant is the amount of power that the Sun deposits per unit area that is directly exposed to sunlight. The solar constant is equal to approximately (watts per square meter) at a distance of one astronomical unit (AU) from the Sun (that is, on or near Earth). Sunlight on the surface of Earth is attenuation (electromagnetic radiation), attenuated by Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere, so that less power arrives at the surface (closer to ) in clear conditions when the Sun is near the zenith. Sunlight at the top of Earth's atmosphere is composed (by total energy) of about 50% infrared light, 40% visible light, and 10% ultraviolet light. The atmosphere in particular filters out over 70% of solar ultraviolet, especially at the shorter wavelengths. Solar ultraviolet radiation ionizes Earth's dayside upper atmosphere, creating the electrically conducting ionosphere. The Sun emits light across the visible spectrum, so its color is white, with a CIE 1931 color space, CIE color-space index near (0.3, 0.3), when viewed from space or when the Sun is high in the sky. The Solar radiance per wavelength peaks in the green portion of the spectrum when viewed from space. When the Sun is low in the sky, Diffuse sky radiation, atmospheric scattering renders the Sun yellow, red, orange, or magenta. Despite its typical whiteness, mostChildren in Japan are taught to color the Sun red. This is reflected in the flag of Japan (called ''Nisshōki'', meaning the "flag of sun") which has a red, rather than yellow, disk. people mentally picture the Sun as yellow; the reasons for this are the subject of debate. The Sun is a G-type main-sequence star, G2V star, with ''G2'' indicating its effective temperature, surface temperature of approximately 5,778 K (5,505 °C, 9,941 °F), and ''V'' that it, like most stars, is a main sequence, main-sequence star. The average luminance of the Sun is about 1.88 giga candela per square metre, but as viewed through Earth's atmosphere, this is lowered to about 1.44 Gcd/m2. However, the luminance is not constant across the disk of the Sun (limb darkening).

# Composition

as recorded by Skylab The Sun is composed primarily of the chemical elements
hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol H and atomic number 1. With a standard atomic weight of , hydrogen is the lightest element in the periodic table. Hydrogen is the abundance of the chemical elements, mos ...

and
helium Helium (from el, ἥλιος, Helios, lit=Sun) is a chemical element Image:Simple Periodic Table Chart-blocks.svg, 400px, Periodic table, The periodic table of the chemical elements In chemistry, an element is a pure substance consisting ...
. At this time in the Sun's life, they account for 74.9% and 23.8% of the mass of the Sun in the photosphere, respectively.

## Singly ionized iron-group elements

In the 1970s, much research focused on the abundances of iron group, iron-group elements in the Sun. Although significant research was done, until 1978 it was difficult to determine the abundances of some iron-group elements (e.g. cobalt and manganese) via spectrography because of their hyperfine structures. The first largely complete set of oscillator strengths of singly ionized iron-group elements were made available in the 1960s, and these were subsequently improved. In 1978, the abundances of singly ionized elements of the iron group were derived.

## Isotopic composition

Various authors have considered the existence of a gradient in the isotope, isotopic compositions of solar and planetary noble gases, e.g. correlations between isotopic compositions of
neon Neon is a chemical element with the symbol A symbol is a mark, sign, or word that indicates, signifies, or is understood as representing an idea, Object (philosophy), object, or wikt:relationship, relationship. Symbols allow people to go b ...
and xenon in the Sun and on the planets. Prior to 1983, it was thought that the whole Sun has the same composition as the solar atmosphere. In 1983, it was claimed that it was fractionation in the Sun itself that caused the isotopic-composition relationship between the planetary and solar-wind-implanted noble gases.

# Structure and fusion

## Tachocline

The radiative zone and the convective zone are separated by a transition layer, the tachocline. This is a region where the sharp regime change between the uniform rotation of the radiative zone and the differential rotation of the convection zone results in a large shear (fluid), shear between the two—a condition where successive horizontal layers slide past one another. Presently, it is hypothesized (see Solar dynamo) that a magnetic dynamo within this layer generates the Sun's magnetic field.

## Convective zone

The Sun's convection zone extends from 0.7 solar radii (500,000 km) to near the surface. In this layer, the solar plasma is not dense enough or hot enough to transfer the heat energy of the interior outward via radiation. Instead, the density of the plasma is low enough to allow convective currents to develop and move the Sun's energy outward towards its surface. Material heated at the tachocline picks up heat and expands, thereby reducing its density and allowing it to rise. As a result, an orderly motion of the mass develops into thermal cells that carry the majority of the heat outward to the Sun's photosphere above. Once the material diffusively and radiatively cools just beneath the photospheric surface, its density increases, and it sinks to the base of the convection zone, where it again picks up heat from the top of the radiative zone and the convective cycle continues. At the photosphere, the temperature has dropped to 5,700 K and the density to only 0.2 g/m3 (about 1/6,000 the density of air at sea level). The thermal columns of the convection zone form an imprint on the surface of the Sun giving it a granular appearance called the granule (solar physics), solar granulation at the smallest scale and supergranulation at larger scales. Turbulent convection in this outer part of the solar interior sustains "small-scale" dynamo action over the near-surface volume of the Sun. The Sun's thermal columns are Bénard cells and take the shape of roughly hexagonal prisms.

## Photosphere

(DKIST) The visible surface of the Sun, the photosphere, is the layer below which the Sun becomes opacity (optics), opaque to visible light. Photons produced in this layer escape the Sun through the transparent solar atmosphere above it and become solar radiation, sunlight. The change in opacity is due to the decreasing amount of Hydrogen anion, H ions, which absorb visible light easily. Conversely, the visible light we see is produced as electrons react with hydrogen atoms to produce H ions. The photosphere is tens to hundreds of kilometers thick, and is slightly less opaque than air on Earth. Because the upper part of the photosphere is cooler than the lower part, an image of the Sun appears brighter in the center than on the edge or ''limb'' of the solar disk, in a phenomenon known as limb darkening. The spectrum of sunlight has approximately the spectrum of a black-body radiating at , interspersed with atomic absorption lines from the tenuous layers above the photosphere. The photosphere has a particle density of ~1023 m−3 (about 0.37% of the particle number per volume of Earth's atmosphere at sea level). The photosphere is not fully ionized—the extent of ionization is about 3%, leaving almost all of the hydrogen in atomic form. During early studies of the optical spectrum of the photosphere, some absorption lines were found that did not correspond to any chemical elements then known on Earth. In 1868, Norman Lockyer hypothesized that these absorption lines were caused by a new element that he dubbed ''helium'', after the Greek Sun god Helios. Twenty-five years later, helium was isolated on Earth.

## Atmosphere

During a total solar eclipse, when the disk of the Sun is covered by that of the Moon, parts of the Sun's surrounding atmosphere can be seen. It is composed of four distinct parts: the chromosphere, the transition region, the corona and the heliosphere. The coolest layer of the Sun is a temperature minimum region extending to about above the photosphere, and has a temperature of about . This part of the Sun is cool enough to allow the existence of simple molecules such as carbon monoxide and water, which can be detected via their absorption spectra. The chromosphere, transition region, and corona are much hotter than the surface of the Sun. The reason is not well understood, but evidence suggests that Alfvén waves may have enough energy to heat the corona. Above the temperature minimum layer is a layer about thick, dominated by a spectrum of emission and absorption lines. It is called the ''chromosphere'' from the Greek root ''chroma'', meaning color, because the chromosphere is visible as a colored flash at the beginning and end of total solar eclipses. The temperature of the chromosphere increases gradually with altitude, ranging up to around near the top. In the upper part of the chromosphere helium becomes partially ionization, ionized. Above the chromosphere, in a thin (about ) transition region, the temperature rises rapidly from around in the upper chromosphere to coronal temperatures closer to . The temperature increase is facilitated by the full ionization of helium in the transition region, which significantly reduces radiative cooling of the plasma. The transition region does not occur at a well-defined altitude. Rather, it forms a kind of Halo (optical phenomenon), nimbus around chromospheric features such as Spicule (solar physics), spicules and Solar filament, filaments, and is in constant, chaotic motion. The transition region is not easily visible from Earth's surface, but is readily observable from outer space, space by instruments sensitive to the extreme ultraviolet portion of the electromagnetic spectrum, spectrum. The corona is the next layer of the Sun. The low corona, near the surface of the Sun, has a particle density around 1015 m−3 to 1016 m−3. The average temperature of the corona and solar wind is about 1,000,000–2,000,000 K; however, in the hottest regions it is 8,000,000–20,000,000 K. Although no complete theory yet exists to account for the temperature of the corona, at least some of its heat is known to be from magnetic reconnection. The corona is the extended atmosphere of the Sun, which has a volume much larger than the volume enclosed by the Sun's photosphere. A flow of plasma outward from the Sun into Outer space, interplanetary space is the solar wind. The heliosphere, the tenuous outermost atmosphere of the Sun, is filled with the solar wind plasma. This outermost layer of the Sun is defined to begin at the distance where the flow of the solar wind becomes ''superalfvénic''—that is, where the flow becomes faster than the speed of Alfvén waves, at approximately 20 solar radii (0.1 AU). Turbulence and dynamic forces in the heliosphere cannot affect the shape of the solar corona within, because the information can only travel at the speed of Alfvén waves. The solar wind travels outward continuously through the heliosphere, forming the solar magnetic field into a Parker spiral, spiral shape, until it impacts the Heliopause (astronomy), heliopause more than from the Sun. In December 2004, the Voyager 1 probe passed through a shock front that is thought to be part of the heliopause. In late 2012 Voyager 1 recorded a marked increase in cosmic ray collisions and a sharp drop in lower energy particles from the solar wind, which suggested that the probe had passed through the heliopause and entered the interstellar medium. The heliosphere has a Heliosphere#Heliotail, heliotail which stretches out behind it due to the Sun's movement.

## Photons and neutrinos

High-energy gamma ray photons initially released with fusion reactions in the core are almost immediately absorbed by the solar plasma of the radiative zone, usually after traveling only a few millimeters. Re-emission happens in a random direction and usually at slightly lower energy. With this sequence of emissions and absorptions, it takes a long time for radiation to reach the Sun's surface. Estimates of the photon travel time range between 10,000 and 170,000 years. In contrast, it takes only 2.3 seconds for the neutrinos, which account for about 2% of the total energy production of the Sun, to reach the surface. Because energy transport in the Sun is a process that involves photons in thermodynamic equilibrium with matter, the time scale of energy transport in the Sun is longer, on the order of 30,000,000 years. This is the time it would take the Sun to return to a stable state if the rate of energy generation in its core were suddenly changed. Neutrinos are also released by the fusion reactions in the core, but, unlike photons, they rarely interact with matter, so almost all are able to escape the Sun immediately. For many years measurements of the number of neutrinos produced in the Sun were Solar neutrino problem, lower than theories predicted by a factor of 3. This discrepancy was resolved in 2001 through the discovery of the effects of neutrino oscillation: the Sun emits the number of neutrinos predicted by the theory, but neutrino detectors were missing of them because the neutrinos had changed flavor (particle physics), flavor by the time they were detected.

# Magnetic activity

## Magnetic field

extends to the outer reaches of the Solar System, and results from the influence of the Sun's rotating magnetic field on the Plasma (physics), plasma in the interplanetary medium. The Sun has a magnetic field that varies across the surface of the Sun. Its polar field is , whereas the field is typically in features on the Sun called sunspots and in solar prominences. The magnetic field varies in time and location. The quasi-periodic 11-year solar cycle is the most prominent variation in which the number and size of sunspots waxes and wanes. Sunspots are visible as dark patches on the Sun's photosphere and correspond to concentrations of magnetic field where the convective transport of heat is inhibited from the solar interior to the surface. As a result, sunspots are slightly cooler than the surrounding photosphere, so they appear dark. At a typical solar minimum, few sunspots are visible, and occasionally none can be seen at all. Those that do appear are at high solar latitudes. As the solar cycle progresses towards its solar maximum, maximum, sunspots tend to form closer to the solar equator, a phenomenon known as Spörer's law. The largest sunspots can be tens of thousands of kilometers across. An 11-year sunspot cycle is half of a 22-year Babcock Model, Babcock–Leighton solar dynamo, dynamo cycle, which corresponds to an oscillatory exchange of energy between toroidal and poloidal solar magnetic fields. At solar-cycle maximum, the external poloidal dipolar magnetic field is near its dynamo-cycle minimum strength, but an internal Toroidal and poloidal, toroidal quadrupolar field, generated through differential rotation within the tachocline, is near its maximum strength. At this point in the dynamo cycle, buoyant upwelling within the convective zone forces emergence of the toroidal magnetic field through the photosphere, giving rise to pairs of sunspots, roughly aligned east-west and having footprints with opposite magnetic polarities. The magnetic polarity of sunspot pairs alternates every solar cycle, a phenomenon known as the Hale cycle. During the solar cycle's declining phase, energy shifts from the internal toroidal magnetic field to the external poloidal field, and sunspots diminish in number and size. At solar-cycle minimum, the toroidal field is, correspondingly, at minimum strength, sunspots are relatively rare, and the poloidal field is at its maximum strength. With the rise of the next 11-year sunspot cycle, differential rotation shifts magnetic energy back from the poloidal to the toroidal field, but with a polarity that is opposite to the previous cycle. The process carries on continuously, and in an idealized, simplified scenario, each 11-year sunspot cycle corresponds to a change, then, in the overall polarity of the Sun's large-scale magnetic field. The solar magnetic field extends well beyond the Sun itself. The electrically conducting solar wind plasma carries the Sun's magnetic field into space, forming what is called the interplanetary magnetic field. In an approximation known as ideal magnetohydrodynamics, plasma particles only move along the magnetic field lines. As a result, the outward-flowing solar wind stretches the interplanetary magnetic field outward, forcing it into a roughly radial structure. For a simple dipolar solar magnetic field, with opposite hemispherical polarities on either side of the solar magnetic equator, a thin heliospheric current sheet, current sheet is formed in the solar wind. At great distances, the rotation of the Sun twists the dipolar magnetic field and corresponding current sheet into an Archimedean spiral structure called the Parker spiral. The interplanetary magnetic field is much stronger than the dipole component of the solar magnetic field. The Sun's dipole magnetic field of 50–400 tesla (unit), μT (at the photosphere) reduces with the inverse-cube of the distance, leading to a predicted magnetic field of 0.1 nT at the distance of Earth. However, according to spacecraft observations the interplanetary field at Earth's location is around 5 nT, about a hundred times greater. The difference is due to magnetic fields generated by electrical currents in the plasma surrounding the Sun.

## Variation in activity

The Sun's magnetic field leads to many effects that are collectively called solar variation, solar activity. Solar flares and coronal mass ejections, coronal-mass ejections tend to occur at sunspot groups. Slowly changing high-speed streams of solar wind are emitted from coronal holes at the photospheric surface. Both coronal-mass ejections and high-speed streams of solar wind carry plasma and interplanetary magnetic field outward into the Solar System. The effects of solar activity on Earth include aurora (astronomy), auroras at moderate to high latitudes and the disruption of radio communications and electric power. Solar activity is thought to have played a large role in the formation and evolution of the Solar System. With solar-cycle modulation of sunspot number comes a corresponding modulation of space weather conditions, including those surrounding Earth where technological systems can be affected. In December 2019, a new type of solar magnetic explosion was observed, known as forced magnetic reconnection. Previously, in a process called spontaneous magnetic reconnection, it was observed that the solar magnetic field lines diverge explosively and then converge again instantaneously. Forced Magnetic Reconnection was similar, but it was triggered by an explosion in the corona.

## Long-term change

Long-term secular change in sunspot number is thought, by some scientists, to be correlated with long-term change in solar irradiance, which, in turn, might influence Earth's long-term climate. For example, in the 17th century, the solar cycle appeared to have stopped entirely for several decades; few sunspots were observed during a period known as the Maunder minimum. This coincided in time with the era of the Little Ice Age, when Europe experienced unusually cold temperatures. Earlier extended minima have been discovered through analysis of tree rings and appear to have coincided with lower-than-average global temperatures. A recent theory claims that there are magnetic instabilities in the core of the Sun that cause fluctuations with periods of either 41,000 or 100,000 years. These could provide a better explanation of the ice ages than the Milankovitch cycles.

# Life phases

The Sun today is roughly halfway through the most stable part of its life. It has not changed dramatically for over four billion years and will remain fairly stable for more than five billion more. However, after hydrogen fusion in its core has stopped, the Sun will undergo dramatic changes, both internally and externally.

## Formation

The Sun formed about 4.6 billion years ago from the collapse of part of a giant molecular cloud that consisted mostly of hydrogen and helium and that probably gave birth to many other stars. This age is estimated using computer simulation, computer models of stellar evolution and through nucleocosmochronology. The result is consistent with the radiometric dating, radiometric date of the oldest Solar System material, at 4.567 billion years ago. Studies of ancient meteorites reveal traces of stable daughter nuclei of short-lived isotopes, such as iron-60, that form only in exploding, short-lived stars. This indicates that one or more supernovae must have occurred near the location where the Sun formed. A shock wave from a nearby supernova would have triggered the formation of the Sun by compressing the matter within the molecular cloud and causing certain regions to collapse under their own gravity. As one fragment of the cloud collapsed it also began to rotate due to conservation of angular momentum and heat up with the increasing pressure. Much of the mass became concentrated in the center, whereas the rest flattened out into a disk that would become the planets and other Solar System bodies. Gravity and pressure within the core of the cloud generated a lot of heat as it accumulated more matter from the surrounding disk, eventually triggering stellar nucleosynthesis, nuclear fusion. HD 162826 and HD 186302 are hypothesized stellar siblings of the Sun, having formed in the same molecular cloud.

## Main sequence

The Sun is about halfway through its main-sequence stage, during which nuclear fusion reactions in its core fuse hydrogen into helium. Each second, more than four million tonnes of matter are converted into energy within the Sun's core, producing neutrinos and solar radiation. At this rate, the Sun has so far converted around 100 times the mass of Earth into energy, about 0.03% of the total mass of the Sun. The Sun will spend a total of approximately 10 billion years as a main-sequence star. The Sun is gradually becoming hotter in its core, hotter at the surface, larger in radius, and more luminous during its time on the main sequence: since the beginning of its main sequence life, it has expanded in radius by 15% and the surface has increased in temperature from 5620 K to 5777 K, resulting in a 48% increase in luminosity from 0.677 solar luminosity, solar luminosities to its present-day 1.0 solar luminosity. This occurs because the helium atoms in the core have a higher mean molecular weight than the hydrogen atoms that were fused, resulting in less thermal pressure. The core is therefore shrinking, allowing the outer layers of the Sun to move closer to the center, releasing gravitational potential energy. According to the virial theorem, half this released gravitational energy goes into heating, which leads to a gradual increase in the rate at which fusion occurs and thus an increase in the luminosity. This process speeds up as the core gradually becomes denser. At present, it is increasing in brightness by about 1% every 100 million years.

# Motion and location

The Sun lies close to the inner rim of the Milky Way's Orion Arm, in the Local Interstellar Cloud or the Gould Belt, at a distance of from the Galactic Center. The Sun is contained within the Local Bubble, a space of rarefied hot gas, possibly produced by the supernova remnant Geminga, or multiple supernovae in subgroup B1 of the Pleiades moving group. The distance between the local arm and the next arm out, the Perseus Arm, is about 6,500 light-years. The Sun, and thus the Solar System, is found in what scientists call the galactic habitable zone. The ''Apex of the Sun's Way'', or the solar apex, is the direction that the Sun travels relative to other nearby stars. This motion is towards a point in the constellation Hercules (constellation), Hercules, near the star Vega. Within of the Sun there are 315 known stars in 227 systems, as of 2000, including 163 single stars. It is estimated that a further 130 systems within this range have not yet been identified. Out to , there may be up to 7,500 stars, of which around 2,600 are known. The number of substellar objects in that volume are expected to be comparable to the number of stars. Of the 50 Nearest stars, nearest stellar systems within 17 light-years from Earth (the closest being the red dwarf Proxima Centauri at approximately 4.2 light-years), the Sun ranks fourth in mass.

## Orbit in Milky Way

The Sun orbits the center of the Milky Way, and it is presently moving in the direction of the constellation of Cygnus (constellation), Cygnus. A simple model of the motion of a star in the galaxy gives the galactic coordinates , , and as: :$X\left(t\right)=X\left(0\right)+\frac\kappa\sin\left(\kappa t\right)+\frac\left(1-\cos\left(\kappa t\right)\right)$ :$Y\left(t\right)=Y\left(0\right)+2A\left\left(X\left(0\right)+\frac\right\right)t-\fracV\left(0\right)\sin\left(\kappa t\right)+\fracU\left(0\right)\left(1-\cos\left(\kappa t\right)\right)$ :$Z\left(t\right)=\frac\nu\sin\left(\nu t\right)+Z\left(0\right)\cos\left(\nu t\right)$ where , , and are the respective velocities with respect to the local standard of rest, and are the Oort constants, $\Omega_0=A-B$ is the angular velocity of galactic rotation for the local standard of rest, $\kappa=\sqrt$ is the "epicyclic frequency", and ν is the vertical oscillation frequency. For the sun, the present values of , , and are estimated as $\left(U\left(0\right),V\left(0\right),W\left(0\right)\right)=\left(10.00, 5.25, 7.17\right)$ km/s, and estimates for the other constants are  = 15.5 km/s/kiloparsec, kpc,  = −12.2 km/s/kpc, κ = 37 km/s/kpc, and ν=74 km/s/kpc. We take and to be zero and is estimated to be 17 parsecs. This model implies that the Sun circulates around a point that is itself going around the galaxy. The period of the Sun's circulation around the point is $2\pi/\kappa$. which, using the equivalence that a parsec equals 1 km/s times 0.978 million years, comes to 166 million years, shorter than the time it takes for the point to go around the galaxy. In the () coordinates, the Sun describes an ellipse around the point, whose length in the direction is :$2\times\sqrt=1035\text.$ and whose width in the direction is :$2\times\sqrt=691\text$ The ratio of length to width of this ellipse, the same for all stars in our neighborhood, is $2\Omega/\kappa\approx 1.50.$ The moving point is presently at :$X=\frac=-215\text$ :$Y=\fracU\left(0\right)=405\text.$ The oscillation in the direction takes the Sun :$\sqrt=98\text$ above the galactic plane and the same distance below it, with a period of $2\pi/\nu$ or 83 million years, approximately 2.7 times per orbit. Although $2\pi/\Omega_0$ is 222 million years, the value of $\Omega$ at the point around which the Sun circulates is :$\Omega\approx\Omega_0-\frac\Delta X\approx 26.1\text$ (see Oort constants), corresponding to 235 million years, and this is the time that the point takes to go once around the galaxy. Other stars with the same value of $X+V/\left(2B\right)$ have to take the same amount of time to go around the galaxy as the sun and thus remain in the same general vicinity as the Sun. The Sun's orbit around the Milky Way is perturbed due to the non-uniform mass distribution in Milky Way, such as that in and between the galactic spiral arms. It has been argued that the Sun's passage through the higher density spiral arms often coincides with mass extinctions on Earth, perhaps due to increased impact events. It takes the Solar System about 225–250 million years to complete one orbit through the Milky Way (a ''galactic year''), so it is thought to have completed 20–25 orbits during the lifetime of the Sun. The orbital speed of the Solar System about the center of the Milky Way is approximately 251 km/s (156 mi/s). At this speed, it takes around 1,190 years for the Solar System to travel a distance of 1 light-year, or 7 days to travel . The Milky Way is moving with respect to the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) in the direction of the constellation Hydra (constellation), Hydra with a speed of 550 km/s, and the Sun's resultant velocity with respect to the CMB is about 370 km/s in the direction of Crater (constellation), Crater or Leo (constellation), Leo.

## Motion in the Solar System

The Sun is moved by the gravitational pull of the planets. One can think of the barycentre of the Solar System as being stationary (or as moving in a steady motion around the galaxy). The centre of the sun is always within 2.2 solar radii of the barycentre. This motion of the Sun is mainly due to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. For some periods of several decades, the motion is rather regular, forming a trefoil pattern, whereas between these periods it appears more chaotic. After 179 years (nine times the synodic period of Jupiter and Saturn) the pattern more or less repeats, but rotated by about 24°. The orbits of the inner planets, including of the Earth, are similarly displaced by the same graviational forces, so the movement of the Sun has little effect on the relative positions of the Earth and the Sun or on solar irradiance on the Earth as a function of time.

# Theoretical problems

## Coronal heating problem

The temperature of the photosphere is approximately 6,000 K, whereas the temperature of the corona reaches . The high temperature of the corona shows that it is heated by something other than direct heat conduction from the photosphere. It is thought that the energy necessary to heat the corona is provided by turbulent motion in the convection zone below the photosphere, and two main mechanisms have been proposed to explain coronal heating. The first is wave heating, in which sound, gravitational or magnetohydrodynamic waves are produced by turbulence in the convection zone. These waves travel upward and dissipate in the corona, depositing their energy in the ambient matter in the form of heat. The other is magnetic heating, in which magnetic energy is continuously built up by photospheric motion and released through magnetic reconnection in the form of large solar flares and myriad similar but smaller events—nanoflares. Currently, it is unclear whether waves are an efficient heating mechanism. All waves except Alfvén waves have been found to dissipate or refract before reaching the corona. In addition, Alfvén waves do not easily dissipate in the corona. Current research focus has therefore shifted towards flare heating mechanisms.

## Faint young Sun problem

Theoretical models of the Sun's development suggest that 3.8 to 2.5 billion years ago, during the Archean, Archean eon, the Sun was only about 75% as bright as it is today. Such a weak star would not have been able to sustain liquid water on Earth's surface, and thus life should not have been able to develop. However, the geological record demonstrates that Earth has remained at a fairly constant temperature throughout its history and that the young Earth was somewhat warmer than it is today. One theory among scientists is that the atmosphere of the young Earth contained much larger quantities of greenhouse gases (such as carbon dioxide, methane) than are present today, which trapped enough heat to compensate for the smaller amount of solar energy reaching it. However, examination of Archaean sediments appears inconsistent with the hypothesis of high greenhouse concentrations. Instead, the moderate temperature range may be explained by a lower surface albedo brought about by less continental area and the lack of biologically induced cloud condensation nuclei. This would have led to increased absorption of solar energy, thereby compensating for the lower solar output.

# Observational history

The enormous effect of the Sun on Earth has been recognized since prehistoric times, and the Sun has been regarded by some cultures as a solar deity.

## Early understanding

The Sun has been an object of veneration in many cultures throughout human history. Humanity's most fundamental understanding of the Sun is as the luminous disk in the sky, whose presence above the horizon creates day and whose absence causes night. In many prehistoric and ancient cultures, the Sun was thought to be a solar deity or other supernatural entity. Sun worship, Worship of the Sun was central to civilizations such as the ancient Egyptians, the Inca of South America and the Aztecs of what is now Mexico. In religions such as Hinduism, the Sun is still considered a god. Many ancient monuments were constructed with solar phenomena in mind; for example, stone megaliths accurately mark the summer or winter solstice (some of the most prominent megaliths are located in Nabta Playa, Egypt; Mnajdra, Malta and at Stonehenge, England); Newgrange, a prehistoric human-built mount in Ireland, was designed to detect the winter solstice; the pyramid of El Castillo, Chichen Itza, El Castillo at Chichén Itzá in Mexico is designed to cast shadows in the shape of serpents climbing the pyramid at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. The Egyptians portrayed the god Ra as being carried across the sky in a solar barque, accompanied by lesser gods, and to the Greeks, he was Helios, carried by a chariot drawn by fiery horses. From the reign of Elagabalus in the Decline of the Roman Empire, late Roman Empire the Sun's birthday was a holiday celebrated as Sol Invictus (literally "Unconquered Sun") soon after the winter solstice, which may have been an antecedent to Christmas. Regarding the fixed stars, the Sun appears from Earth to revolve once a year along the ecliptic through the zodiac, and so Greek astronomers categorized it as one of the seven classical planets, planets (Greek ''planetes'', "wanderer"); the naming of the Names of the days of the week, days of the weeks after the seven planets dates to the Roman Empire, Roman era.

## Development of scientific understanding

infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from the n ...
radiation beyond the red part of the solar spectrum. The 19th century saw advancement in spectroscopic studies of the Sun; Joseph von Fraunhofer recorded more than 600 absorption lines in the spectrum, the strongest of which are still often referred to as Fraunhofer lines. In the early years of the modern scientific era, the source of the Sun's energy was a significant puzzle. Lord Kelvin suggested that the Sun is a gradually cooling liquid body that is radiating an internal store of heat. Kelvin and Hermann von Helmholtz then proposed a Kelvin–Helmholtz mechanism, gravitational contraction mechanism to explain the energy output, but the resulting age estimate was only 20 million years, well short of the time span of at least 300 million years suggested by some geological discoveries of that time. In 1890 Joseph Norman Lockyer, Joseph Lockyer, who discovered helium in the solar spectrum, proposed a meteoritic hypothesis for the formation and evolution of the Sun. Not until 1904 was a documented solution offered. Ernest Rutherford suggested that the Sun's output could be maintained by an internal source of heat, and suggested radioactive decay as the source. However, it would be Albert Einstein who would provide the essential clue to the source of the Sun's energy output with his mass–energy equivalence relation . In 1920, Sir Arthur Eddington proposed that the pressures and temperatures at the core of the Sun could produce a nuclear fusion reaction that merged hydrogen (protons) into helium nuclei, resulting in a production of energy from the net change in mass. The preponderance of hydrogen in the Sun was confirmed in 1925 by Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Cecilia Payne using the ionization theory developed by Meghnad Saha. The theoretical concept of fusion was developed in the 1930s by the astrophysicists Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and Hans Bethe. Hans Bethe calculated the details of the two main energy-producing nuclear reactions that power the Sun. In 1957, Margaret Burbidge, Geoffrey Burbidge, William Alfred Fowler, William Fowler and Fred Hoyle showed that most of the elements in the universe have been nucleosynthesis, synthesized by nuclear reactions inside stars, some like the Sun.

# Observation and effects

File:STS-134 EVA4 view to the Russian Orbital Segment.jpg, The Sun, as seen from low Earth orbit overlooking the International Space Station. This sunlight is not filtered by the lower atmosphere, which blocks much of the solar spectrum. The brightness of the Sun can cause pain from looking at it with the naked eye; however, doing so for brief periods is not hazardous for normal non-dilated eyes. Looking directly at the Sun causes phosphene visual artifacts and temporary partial blindness. It also delivers about 4 milliwatts of sunlight to the retina, slightly heating it and potentially causing damage in eyes that cannot respond properly to the brightness. UV exposure gradually yellows the lens of the eye over a period of years, and is thought to contribute to the formation of cataracts, but this depends on general exposure to solar UV, and not whether one looks directly at the Sun. Long-duration viewing of the direct Sun with the naked eye can begin to cause UV-induced, sunburn-like lesions on the retina after about 100 seconds, particularly under conditions where the UV light from the Sun is intense and well focused; conditions are worsened by young eyes or new lens implants (which admit more UV than aging natural eyes), Sun angles near the zenith, and observing locations at high altitude. Viewing the Sun through light-concentrating optics such as binoculars may result in permanent damage to the retina without an appropriate filter that blocks UV and substantially dims the sunlight. When using an attenuating filter to view the Sun, the viewer is cautioned to use a filter specifically designed for that use. Some improvised filters that pass UV or infrared, IR rays, can actually harm the eye at high brightness levels. Herschel wedges, also called Solar Diagonals, are effective and inexpensive for small telescopes. The sunlight that is destined for the eyepiece is reflected from an unsilvered surface of a piece of glass. Only a very small fraction of the incident light is reflected. The rest passes through the glass and leaves the instrument. If the glass breaks because of the heat, no light at all is reflected, making the device fail-safe. Simple filters made of darkened glass allow the full intensity of sunlight to pass through if they break, endangering the observer's eyesight. Unfiltered binoculars can deliver hundreds of times as much energy as using the naked eye, possibly causing immediate damage. It is claimed that even brief glances at the midday Sun through an unfiltered telescope can cause permanent damage. Partial solar eclipses are hazardous to view because the eye's pupil is not adapted to the unusually high visual contrast: the pupil dilates according to the total amount of light in the field of view, ''not'' by the brightest object in the field. During partial eclipses, most sunlight is blocked by the Moon passing in front of the Sun, but the uncovered parts of the photosphere have the same surface brightness as during a normal day. In the overall gloom, the pupil expands from ~2 mm to ~6 mm, and each retinal cell exposed to the solar image receives up to ten times more light than it would looking at the non-eclipsed Sun. This can damage or kill those cells, resulting in small permanent blind spots for the viewer. The hazard is insidious for inexperienced observers and for children because there is no perception of pain: it is not immediately obvious that one's vision is being destroyed. During sunrise and sunset, sunlight is attenuated because of Rayleigh scattering and Mie theory, Mie scattering from a particularly long passage through Earth's atmosphere, and the Sun is sometimes faint enough to be viewed comfortably with the naked eye or safely with optics (provided there is no risk of bright sunlight suddenly appearing through a break between clouds). Hazy conditions, atmospheric dust, and high humidity contribute to this atmospheric attenuation. An optical phenomenon, known as a green flash, can sometimes be seen shortly after sunset or before sunrise. The flash is caused by light from the Sun just below the horizon being refraction, bent (usually through a temperature inversion) towards the observer. Light of shorter wavelengths (violet, blue, green) is bent more than that of longer wavelengths (yellow, orange, red) but the violet and blue light is Rayleigh scattering, scattered more, leaving light that is perceived as green. Ultraviolet light from the Sun has antiseptic properties and can be used to sanitize tools and water. It also causes sunburn, and has other biological effects such as the production of vitamin D and sun tanning. It is also the main cause of skin cancer. Ultraviolet light is strongly attenuated by Earth's ozone layer, so that the amount of UV varies greatly with latitude and has been partially responsible for many biological adaptations, including variations in human skin color in different regions of the Earth.

# Planetary system

The Sun has eight known planets. This includes four terrestrial planets (Mercury (planet), Mercury, Venus,
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. About 29% of Earth's surface is land consisting of continent A continent is one of several large landmasses. Generally identified by con ...
, and Mars), two gas giants (Jupiter and Saturn), and two ice giants (Uranus and Neptune). The Solar System also has at least five dwarf planets, an asteroid belt, numerous comets, and a large number of icy bodies which lie beyond the orbit of Neptune.

# Religious aspects

Solar deities play a major role in many world religions and mythologies. The ancient Sumerians believed that the Sun was Utu, the god of justice and twin brother of Inanna, the Queen of Heaven (antiquity), Queen of Heaven, who was identified as the planet Venus. Later, Utu was identified with the East Semitic god Shamash. Utu was regarded as a helper-deity, who aided those in distress, and, in iconography, he is usually portrayed with a long beard and clutching a saw, which represented his role as the dispenser of justice. From at least the Fourth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the Sun was worshipped as the Ra, god Ra, portrayed as a falcon-headed divinity surmounted by the solar disk, and surrounded by a serpent. In the New Kingdom of Egypt, New Empire period, the Sun became identified with the dung beetle, whose spherical ball of dung was identified with the Sun. In the form of the sun disc Aten, the Sun had a brief resurgence during the Amarna Period when it again became the preeminent, if not only, divinity for the Pharaoh Akhenaton. In Proto-Indo-European religion, the Sun was personified as the goddess Sun deity, ''*Seh2ul''. Derivatives of this goddess in Indo-European languages include the Old Norse ''Sól (sun), Sól'', Sanskrit ''Surya'', Gaulish language, Gaulish ''Sulis'', Lithuanian language, Lithuanian ''Saulė'', and Slavic languages, Slavic ''Solntse''. In ancient Greek religion, the sun deity was the male god Helios, but traces of an earlier female solar deity are preserved in Helen of Troy. In later times, Helios was syncretism, syncretized with Apollo. In the Bible, mentions the "Sun of Righteousness" (sometimes translated as the "Sun of Justice"), which some Christianity, Christians have interpreted as a reference to the Messiah (Christ). In ancient Roman culture, Sunday was the day of the sun god. It was adopted as the Sabbath day by Christians who did not have a Jewish background. The symbol of light was a pagan device adopted by Christians, and perhaps the most important one that did not come from Jewish traditions. In paganism, the Sun was a source of life, giving warmth and illumination to mankind. It was the center of a popular cult among Romans, who would stand at dawn to catch the first rays of sunshine as they prayed. The celebration of the winter solstice (which influenced Christmas) was part of the Roman cult of the unconquered Sun (Sol Invictus). Christian churches were built with an orientation so that the congregation faced toward the sunrise in the East. Tonatiuh, the Aztec god of the sun, was usually depicted holding arrows and a shield and was closely associated with the practice of human sacrifice. The sun goddess Amaterasu is the most important deity in the Shinto religion, and she is believed to be the direct ancestor of all List of Emperors of Japan, Japanese emperors.

# References

* * *

Nasa SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) satellite

National Solar Observatory

Astronomy Cast: The Sun

(''The Boston Globe'')
Satellite observations of solar luminosity

Sun, Trek, an educational website about the Sun

The Swedish 1-meter Solar Telescope, SST

(University of Glamorgan)
Animation – The Future of the Sun

nbsp;– NASA – images, link to report on Science
NASA 5-year timelapse video of the Sun

Sun in Ultra High Definition
NASA 11 January 2015
Album
of images and videos by Seán Doran, based on Solar Dynamics Observatory, SDO imagery * (NASA; Solar Dynamics Observatory, SDO; 24 June 2020) {{Authority control Sun, Articles containing video clips Astronomical objects known since antiquity G-type main-sequence stars Light sources Plasma physics Space plasmas Stars with proper names, Sun