Questions tagged [sun]

The Sun is an almost perfectly symmetric yellow dwarf star [spectral class G2V] which is at the center of our Solar System.

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Fusion in the sun for 4 hydrogen to Helium-4. How is the energy produced

So please correct me if I am wrong but: First 2 proton’s (each with an electron) fuse together, The mass stays the same so no energy is produced? Then 1 of the protons turns into a neutron with a ...
Bobbie Space's user avatar
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How do I confirm that solar eclipse glasses block (a substantial fraction of) UV rays and near-IR rays?

Under pressure I placed an order for "solar eclipse glasses". They claim: Conforms to and meets the Transmission Requirements of ISO 12312-2, Filters for Direct Observation of the Sun ...
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Brightness of the light source at twilight computation

I would like to determine the brightness of the light source at twilight based upon its apparent magnitude. In the question here: What are the average wavelengths and brightnesses of sunlight across ...
Geographos's user avatar
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How do we know that the Sun is 71% Hydrogen by mass from emission/absorption spectra?

In my Intro to Astronomy ("intro" is very important, please keep responses as simple as possible) course, we're currently learning about light and electron orbitals and such, and I came ...
Sami Hanna's user avatar
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Why the Sun does not shoot relativistic jets?

I saw the features of the Sun here and it has almost everything include nanojets and CME but not relativistic jets. Isn't the Sun magnetically active so why isn't it capable of shooting out ...
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What is the albedo of our Sun?

I think the Sun is the closest to a perfect natural black body we can get in the Solar System, if so then what happens to the light if I point a laser pointer at the Sun?
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Where is there visible light inside the Sun?

The solar core has a temperature of 15 million K, but the visible color temperature is only between 1000 K and 10000 K. Also, the plasma is very dense at the core, so it won't be able to travel there. ...
Jostein Trondal's user avatar
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Estimate distance of a halogen lamp to simulate sun

I'd like to simulate sun effects on a material affected by UV and IR. Actually is winter and I'll need to wait 6 months to have maximum sun intensity and be able to expose it to direct sun. I've a ...
Singed's user avatar
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What is the difference between granulatiion, mesogranulation, supergranulation and giant cells in sun's photosphere?

Help me understand the differences between granulation, mesogranulation, supergranulation, and giant cells and at what depth they are created.
Devesh Sharma's user avatar
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Does the Earth's magnetic field lag behind the Earth as Earth orbits the sun?

I imagine that when the earth orbits the sun, the earth's magnetic field is also subject to the sun's gravity, since photons and light are subject to gravity. As a result, the magnetic field does not ...
garmichaels's user avatar
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How fast do I have to fly vertically up to pause sunset?

I'm standing on the famous Laguna Beach in southern Los Angeles to watch the sunset on December 18th (33.541679°N 117.777214°W, 0m elevation, 16:44 PST). Now, from my perspective at the shore, the sun'...
Richard Zhu's user avatar
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How much radiation on the surface of the moon during a Coronal Mass Ejection (CME)?

I'm writing a book set on the moon. A Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) as large as the Carrington Event hits it. Three astronauts are caught out during an EVA. They will cover their rover in regolith to ...
L.R. Lam's user avatar
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How is volume defined and measured in nuclear physics, in particular regarding the Sun’s core? [closed]

The Sun’s core is, from the micro/quantum perspective (from what I've read) the constantly moving phenomena of nuclear fusion (as the Earth is mostly the constantly moving phenomena of stable atoms ...
lars706's user avatar
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Nuclear fission in the Sun

The Sun's energy comes primarily from fusion of light elements in its core. It is estimated that a very small fraction of mass of the Sun (~$10^{-12}$ times the abundance of hydrogen) is uranium (both ...
Johnsmith's user avatar
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Solar neutrino deficit, 1/3 or 1/2?

The puzzle of the missing solar neutrinos is supposedly solved by neutrino oscillations. I understand the mechanism, but there is still one point which I find unclear. For the energy range and ...
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Which gravitational differences we would feel if the sun disappeared?

I would like to start by stating that I'm not a physicist, I'm purely a curious individual. I've been speculating about the differences the loss of the sun's gravitational field would have on us and ...
Bernard Walters's user avatar
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How to estimate the Kolmogorov scale of the plasma in solar corona?

I would like to estimate the order of Kolmogorov scale $$ l_k = \left( \frac{\nu^3}{\epsilon_d}\right)^{1/4} $$ of the plasma in solar corona, so I need to determine the viscosity $\nu$ and ...
Link's user avatar
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How is there so much ionized hydrogen in the sun?

To my understanding, the sun contains large amounts of ionized hydrogen compared to the amount of hydrogen in the first excited state. I am curious about the explanation, at the quantum scale, for how ...
Relativisticcucumber's user avatar
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How fast is the naked-eye visible transition of a main sequence star to a giant? [duplicate]

I know the evolution of a main sequence star to a giant is a process that takes millions and millions of years, but how fast is the VISIBLE change? Basically, will our sun, for example, slowly grow to ...
blacktopshaman's user avatar
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Is Sun not the biggest source of energy to us?

Probably in my 5th or 6th grade, I learnt in my science classes that sun is the biggest source of energy to us. However, I was watching this youtube video according to whom the energy of earth is ...
An_Elephant's user avatar
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Why do sun emit light of different frequencies? [duplicate]

The sun emits white light, which is a mixture of light from all frequencies. Instead, it should have emitted a beam of light of the same frequency, as the source is the same? So, can you please ...
Shubharth Chaudhary's user avatar
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2 answers
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Why doesn't the sunlight make noises on home satellite dishes?

One of my friends asked me a question to which I could not find a clear answer. We know that the sunlight spectrum includes the entire wave frequencies including those (of the order of 1 GHz) that our ...
Mohammad Javanshiry's user avatar
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Improved estimate of density of free neutrons in solar core

In an answer to this question: Free neutrons in the sun's core? I made a very rough attempt to estimate the density of free neutrons in the solar core. There is some non-zero rate for production ...
Andrew Steane's user avatar
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Why is the Sun’s emission spectrum shaped like this?

The Sun emits more at $450-600 \,\rm{nm}$ than a black body of the same effective temperature would, it also emits far less UV. I’ve heard this is due, in part, to the fact that the Sun doesn’t have a ...
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How do protons fuse in the sun?

I know that Nucelar fusion in the sun requires quantum tunneling to occur, as otherwise the Sun's core wouldn't be hot enough to overcome the Fusion barrier. However while the 2nd and further stage of ...
blademan9999's user avatar
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How hot would the sun have to be to work without quantum tunnelling

I know that the Nuclear fusion in the sun would not work without quantum tunnelling, as the nuclei wouldn’t ever have enough energy to overcome the potential barrier. So how hot would the sun have to ...
blademan9999's user avatar
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What machine learning technique can help generate spectrum line profiles?

I'm trying to work with Calcium-K line profiles from the Sun. Image for reference. Please ignore the labels on the image and note that my profiles are not in image format (more info below). I have ...
Apoorva Srinivasa's user avatar
-8 votes
1 answer
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Randomly think about how the world will end because I have homework to do. Please help me think this through [closed]

First off, I just want to say that i do not hold any degree of any kind, except a forklift certification but I do love space and I think about it to the point where I believe. As I am sitting in front ...
ME with no middle name.'s user avatar
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1 answer
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Can the four Seasons of planet Earth be defined in terms of Energy? [closed]

Can the four Seasons of planet Earth be defined in terms of Energy? The definition of Energy gotten from Google is: ability to do work, which is the ability to exert a force causing displacement of ...
Pika-Chu's user avatar
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Is Earth's magnetic moment vector oriented parallel or antiparallel to the sun's magnetic moment?

Just curious how these two magnets are spatially related to? And in case there is no any special preferred particular orientation, what is anyway their spatial orientation relation (relative angles)? ...
Markoul11's user avatar
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Why is the solar spectrum at the surface of the Earth strongest in the visible light range? [duplicate]

I watched a CrashCourse video saying that nuclear fusion of $\rm H$ to $\rm He$ in the sun radiates mostly gamma rays. Then why are the lights that come to Earth comprise mainly of IR & visible ...
longtry's user avatar
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Which way does current flow in coronal loops and filaments?

My understanding is this: the Solar surface becomes speckled with more sunspots near Solar maximum, and these spots tend to form groupings known as active regions; each spot is associated with a given ...
Outis Nemo's user avatar
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1 answer
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Do Solar Eruptions happen in more than one rotational "layer" in Sun's Differential Rotation? [closed]

Do Solar Eruption occupy more than one rotational layers? Is it possible to confirm this just for most outer layers? Does the number of layers occupied by those eruptions when they happen tell us ...
Pika-Chu's user avatar
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Can I find the surface temperature of the Sun using a spectrometer?

So I have a high school physics project and I essentially have this experiment idea where I use spectroscopy to find the surface temperature of the sun. Now I'm essentially going to assume the Sun is ...
TheExplorer22321's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
337 views

Why is the top of the mountain cooler than the surface? [duplicate]

Why is the top of the mountain cooler than the surface when the mountains are actually more closer to the sun and hence should be hotter?
Aleph Null's user avatar
2 votes
4 answers
1k views

Why doesn't sun go all the way to the horizon during sunset?

This is a very silly question and I really don't know the answer to it but curious to know. Everytime I see the pics of suset on beaches the sun appear to go all the way down to the surface of the ...
Ankit's user avatar
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Could humanity buy more time with climate change by blocking out some direct rays of the Sun with an artificial (partial) eclipse?

Imagine the Earth faced the imminent crisis from climate change as the planet warmed by 1.5C. As a last ditch attempt to buy more time, humanity finally decided to do whatever it takes to stop the ...
Rich K's user avatar
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1 answer
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Should blue & white stars appear red and inflated while observed on the lower part of the night sky for the similar reason as the Sun during sunset?

Should blue and white stars appear red and inflated while observed on the lower part of the night sky for the fairly same reason as the sunlight during sunset? As these stars emit blue light ...
Krešimir Bradvica's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
75 views

How to identify the composition of sun if it is treated like a blackbody? [duplicate]

The sun is usually assumed to be approximately very close to a blackbody, but using spectroscopy it is concluded that the sun is made up of Hydrogen and Helium because the lines corresponding to those ...
Abhishek Banerjee's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
17 views

Why do we not see Sun red in daytime? [duplicate]

I have had this question strike to me as when thinking about the reddish colour of sun during sunsets which is happening through rayleigh scattering , the highly energetic wavelength of colours are ...
Naveen V's user avatar
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2 votes
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How does Viscosity of the Sun varies as we go from core to the convective zone?

How does Viscosity of the Sun varies with its radius? For. eg, Here is the graph of the Density of the sun v/s radius. I am looking for the Viscosity v/s radius plot.
stayhappy's user avatar
1 vote
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Is sun orbiting the center of the Milky Way? [closed]

Are all the celestial bodies in our galaxy (along with the Sun) orbiting the center of the Milky Way Galaxy?
user356262's user avatar
-5 votes
2 answers
335 views

Why is mercury the closest planet to the Sun? [closed]

I just want a solid reasoning that why Mercury is the first planet away from the Sun, then Venus, then Earth, then Mars and so on.
Safi Mohammad's user avatar
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1 answer
285 views

How do you calculate light attenuation by wavelength at a given air mass coefficient?

I am trying to get a good view of light wavelength distribution as a function of viewing angle, with a specific interest as $z \approx 90^\circ$ near the horizon (sunrise/sunset). Air mass ...
KJ7LNW's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
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How do the atoms and electrons move around space when the solar core presses them into a dense plasma? [closed]

It takes a lot of intelligence to compute the center of the sun. As far as I imagine, it's compressed by the hand of gravity and high energy fusion radiation wants to escape one way or the other. ...
bandybabboon's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
660 views

Is the Sun considered to be a black body as a whole or it is only the photosphere which is a black body?

I am having some difficulties understating how fusion inside the Sun is connected to the Sun being a blackbody. How do the photons transfer to the photosphere? Is the amount of transferred energy less ...
Authentic Melody's user avatar
0 votes
4 answers
113 views

Why doesn't a black body absorb its own radiation?

If black bodies absorb all the radiation and emit radiation by themselves, why don't they absorb their own emitted radiation? We shouldn't see the sun for example, since it's a black body.
Authentic Melody's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
137 views

What nuclear fusion reactions occur to form lithium in the sun?

Hydrogen nuclei (deuterium) fuse together to form a He-4 nucleus. I looked up about how lithium exists in the sun and all of the results on Google I looked through kind of dodge the question and ...
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How big can solar flares get and could they boil away Earth's atmosphere?

Is there a known theoretical maximum size for a solar flare and would it mean curtains for life on Earth?
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1 answer
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If there is no oxygen in space what does the sunshine burn for fuel? [duplicate]

Since there is no oxygen in space how does the sun burn fuel?
Amy lesueur - Paquena's user avatar

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