You might believe that you know our Sun well, but you would be in for a pleasant surprise if you could see it with different eyes. This NASA video shows the Sun in an entirely different light, quite literally. Here’s a nice introduction from Dr. Plait. It’s a rather typical star , actually. When compared to the Earth , we see that a star is an entirely different type of object from a planet. It is a huge sphere of hydrogen and helium gas almost one and one half million km in diameter. It is a fairly typical star, about average in all respects. Its spectral type is G2V; that puts it right in the middle of the H-R diagram. The visible surface of the Sun shows indications of massive storms which we see in this captivating video. These storms release energy into space and toward the Earth. We have a spacecraft called SOHO that regularly monitors the Sun's weather . Since we believe the Sun to be a rather typical star, we can make some assumptions of the physical details of most other stars. For instance, we are certain that other stars have starspots ’. We see other features on the surface of our star which must be similar to those seen on other stars. With a properly filtered telescope , we can see a variety of these features on its surface. Here is an excellent documentary on the Sun . It’s 49 minutes long, so we will play it at 1.25 times normal speed so that it fits in a forty minute period.
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Carpe Caelum Stellar Astronomy
Carpe Caelum Stellar Astronomy
Carpe Caelum Stellar Astronomy