The Sun

The big burning ball of gas that holds nine submit planets in image is not un equivalent many stars in the universe. The Sun makes up 99.86 percent of the solar systems mass and provides the push button that both sustains and endangers us. Scientists have lately begun calling its howling(a) arc of get-up-and-go space brook. The Sun can be divided up into three main layers: a core, a radiative zone, and a convective zone. The Suns energy comes from thermonuclear reactions (converting hydrogen to helium) in the core, where the temperature is 15 to 25 billion degrees. The energy radiates through the middle layer, then bubbles and boils to the surface in a process called convection. Charged particles, called the solar wind, stream unwrap at a million miles an hour. magnetised fields indoors the insolate slow down the shaft of heat in some areas, causing sunspots, which are quiet areas and appear as dark patches. Sunspot activity peaks all 11 years. The abutting peak i s due in 2000. During this alleged(prenominal) solar maximum, the sun will bombard Earths atmosphere with redundant doses of solar radiation. The last peak, in 1989, caused power blackouts, knocked satellites out of orbit and cut off radio set communications. (See our special story on Sunspots.) Though NASA scientists arent predicting any record-setting space weather in 2000, the peak is expected to be above aver while.

Its the like saying were going to have a mild or cold winter, says Dr. David Hathaway at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center. alone as communications rely increasingly on satellites, at that pla ce are more(prenominal) than targets in th! e sky and more hearty consequences to any disruptions. And there whitethorn be more to sunspots than disrupted communications. An active sun, known to heat the Earths outer atmosphere, may in any case affect our climate. Scientists say a small ice age from... If you want to get a full essay, order it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

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