Category Archives: Sun

Sun Facts

Posted on March 12, 2019 by richardficek

The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System and is a nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma. Its diameter is about 1.39 million kilometers (864,000 miles) – 109 times that of Earth – and its mass is about 330,000 times that of Earth. The Sun accounts for about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System and its … Continue reading Sun Facts → Continue reading →

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Gravity and Sun Size

Posted on March 12, 2019 by JSpin

Gravity as the Driving Force The Sun has a mass of 2 * 10^30 kg. Gravity exerts a compression force on the Sun proportional to this immense mass. So why doesn’t the sun collapse under the weight of its gravity? The pressure of the center of the Sun is about 340 billion times the air … Continue reading Gravity and Sun Size → Continue reading →

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Nuclear Fusion in the Sun

Posted on March 11, 2019 by richardtli

Nuclear fusion is the process in which the Sun and all other stars generate energy through the combination of light atoms into heavier ones. The nuclear fusion in most stars is carried out in proton-proton fusion. In the first step, two protons fused together to create a proton-neutron core and emitting a neutrino and positron. … Continue reading Nuclear Fusion in the Sun → Continue reading →

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An Artificial Sun

Posted on March 11, 2019 by Campbell Flower

In November of 2018, Chinese scientists announced their work on an artificial sun. Their goal is to develop the same nuclear fusion process that occurs within the sun (the conversion of hydrogen into helium) on Earth to ultimately create a source of unlimited clean energy. One of the biggest challenges of this project is to … Continue reading An Artificial Sun → Continue reading →

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Finding Nuclear Fusion

Posted on March 11, 2019 by Aaron Molotsky

Before the advent of Modern Science and its ability to explain natural phenomena relatively well, we had no idea how the Sun actually worked. Scientists had no idea that the Sun was just a giant ball of really hot gas that’s able to generate light using its own mass. However, over the course of time … Continue reading Finding Nuclear Fusion → Continue reading →

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Blog 3: Auroras in the Southern United States

Posted on March 10, 2019 by Katie

On November 20, 2003 Auroras were seen in the southern United States. This is not a normal occurrence as is likely obvious to most of you. Auroras, or the Northern Lights, are caused by charged particles from the sun spiraling around the earth’s magnetic field and hitting the atmosphere. The magnetic field lines of the … Continue reading Blog 3: Auroras in the Southern United States → Continue reading →

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The Sun in our Solar System

Posted on March 10, 2019 by Daniel R.

The Sun is a hottest star in the universe. The gravity holds the solar system together. It shines so brightly that the temperature of the sun is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit while temperatures of the core reaches abundant 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. The sun also orbits about 25,000 light-years from the galactic core. It is […] Continue reading →

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What’s the weather like on the Sun?

Posted on March 2, 2019 by Jiayu Kang

Just like the Earth, the Sun has weather. The most important features of the Solar Activity includes Sunspots, Solar flares, Coronal mass ejections. and solar winds.  • Sunspots are spots darker than the surrounding area on the Sun’s photosphere caused by concentration of magnetic flux field. Their number varies in an approximately 11-year cycle. • Solar flares … Continue reading What’s the weather like on the Sun? → Continue reading →

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The Qiantang River Tidal Bore

Posted on February 7, 2019 by Jiayu Kang

The Qiantang River runs for 459 km through Zhejiang, China, and flowing into the East China Sea via Hangzhou Bay. From Aug 15th to 21st in the Chinese Lunar Calendar, travelers come to Hangzhou Bay to see the largest tidal bore in the world, which can reach up to 9 meters in height and travel … Continue reading The Qiantang River Tidal Bore → Continue reading →

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How Much Does Light Weigh?

Posted on January 20, 2019 by Josh

Photons are massless particles. They move at the speed of light and do not have an intrinsic mass. And since light is made of photons, we can say that light has no mass. Story over, right? Did you know that light can exerts a force on objects? This force can cause them to weigh more. … Continue reading How Much Does Light Weigh? → Continue reading →

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