The Sun

Nur Islami

INTRODUCTION

The Sun
Our sole source of light and heat in the solar system A very common star: a glowing ball of
gas held together by its own gravity and powered by nuclear fusion at its center.

Visible Image of the Sun

Pressure (from heat caused by nuclear reactions) balances the gravitational pull toward the Suns center. Called Hydrostatic Equilibrium. This balance leads to a spherical ball of gas, called the Sun. What would happen if the nuclear reactions (burning) stopped?

SOLAR PROPERTIES

Solar Properties

Radius = 696,000 km (100 times Earth) Mass = 2 x 1030 kg (300,000 times Earth) Av. Density = 1410 kg/m3 Rotation Period = 24.9 days (equator) 29.8 days (poles) Surface temp = 5780 K Element Hydrogen 70.9% Helium 27.4% etc

Luminosity of the Sun = LSUN

(Total light energy emitted per second)

~ 4 x 1026 W
100 billion onemegaton nuclear bombs every second!

Solar constant:
LSUN / 4R2 (energy/second/area at the radius of Earths orbit)

The Solar Interior Helioseismology

How do we know the interior structure of the Sun?

In the 1960s, it was discovered that the surface of the Sun vibrates like a bell Internal pressure waves reflect off the photosphere Analysis of the surface patterns of these waves tell us about the inside of the Sun

The Standard Solar Model

Energy Transport within the Sun

Extremely hot core - ionized gas
Temperature falls further from core - more and more non-ionized atoms capture the photons - gas becomes opaque to light in the convection zone The low density in the photosphere makes it transparent to light - radiation takes over again

Convection
Convection takes over when the gas is too opaque for radiative energy transport. Hot gas is less dense and rises (or floats, like a hot air balloon or a beach ball in a pool). Cool gas is more dense and sinks

Solar Granulation Evidence for Convection

Solar Granules are the tops of convection cells. Bright regions are where hot material is upwelling (1000 km across). Dark regions are where cooler material is sinking. Material rises/sinks @ ~1 km/sec (2200 mph; Doppler).

THE SUN ATMOSPHERE

The Solar Atmosphere

The solar spectrum has thousands of absorption lines More than 67 different elements are present! Hydrogen is the most abundant element followed by Helium (1st discovered in the Sun!) Spectral lines only tell us about the part of the Sun that forms them (photosphere and chromosphere) but these elements are also thought to be representative of the entire Sun.

Main Regions of the Sun

Visible surface

The Photosphere
The visible surface of the sun It is not solid, thin layer of gas, less than 500 km deep. The pothosphere is less than 1/3000 as dense as the air in the earth. Below photosphere, the gas is denser and hotter The granulation is appear in the photosphere

Granules
Convection from inside the sun causes the photosphere to be subdivided into 10002000km cells.

Energy rises to the surface as gas wells up in the cores of the granules, and cool gas sinks around their edges.

Chromosphere

Chromosphere (seen during full Solar eclipse)

Chromosphere emits very little light because it is of low density Reddish hue due to 32 (656.3 nm) line emission from Hydrogen

 The chromospheres density ranges from 10000-100 billion times less than the air on the earth

Chromospheric Spicules: warm jets of matter shooting out at ~100 km/s Spicules are thought to the result of magnetic disturbances

H light

Transition Zone and Corona

Transition Zone & Corona

Very low density, T ~ 106 K We see emission lines from highly ionized elements (Fe+5 Fe+13) which indicates that the temperature here is very HOT Why does the Temperature rise further from the hot light source? magnetic activity -spicules and other more energetic phenomena (more about this later)

Corona (seen during full Solar eclipse)

Hot coronal gas escapes the Sun Solar wind

Solar Wind

Solar Wind
Coronal gas has enough heat (kinetic) energy to escape the Suns gravity. The Sun is evaporating via this wind. Solar wind travels at ~500 km/s, reaching Earth in ~3 days The Sun loses about 1 million tons of matter each second! However, over the Suns lifetime, it has lost only ~0.1% of its total mass.

Hot coronal gas (~1,000,000 K) emits mostly in X-rays.

Coronal holes are sources of the solar wind (lower density
regions)

Coronal holes are related to the Suns magnetic field

The Active Sun

UV light

Most of theSolar luminosity is continuous photosphere emission. But, there is an irregular component
(contributing little to the Suns total luminosity).

SUNSPOT

Sunspots

Granulation around sunspot

Solar Flares much more violent magnetic instabilities

5 hours
Particles in the flare are so energetic, the magnetic field cannot bring them back to the Sun they escape Suns gravity

Task 2
Make one paper (3-5 pages) that discuss about: Nuclear fusion in the sun and its implication. Submit the paper at next lecture One group (chosen randomly) will present it within 20 minutes (15 minutes for presentation + 5 minutes Q&A)