How does the sun impact us here on earth?
How does the sun impact us here on earth? Well that’s a good question isn’t it? Now let me explain to you how it does impact us on earth.
There is one special star called the sun and it is a ball of gas that sends out light and heat. The sun is the centre of our solar system. In our solar system there are eight planets that orbit the sun. The closer the planet is to the sun the more heat and light the planet gets. Our home, Earth, is the third planet from the sun this means that it gets enough heat and light for plants and animals to live. If the Earth was further forward or further back it would be either too hot or to cold for any living creature to live.
The Sun is the closest star to earth, this is why it looks bigger than all of the other stars in the sky. But it is still very far away, to be exact the sun is around 93 million miles(150 million km) away. So If you drove a car to the sun at 113 km per hour you will reach the sun after 152 years. As you can see in the sky that up more than 109 earths they would probably measure the same distance of the sun.
The sun is 15 million degrees celsius this means the the sun is extremely hot as well as that it is extremely big. The heat causes hydrogen atoms, little pieces of gas that catch on fire easily, to move really fast and crash in to each other and if they crash hard enough they will form a helium atom, a small bit light colourless gas, and they also set energy out into space in the form of heat and light . When the heat and light reaches earth we can feel it warming us up.
The sun has layers a bit like an onion. The center of the sun is called the core and it is where the sun gets its energy. The energy moves through all the sun’s layers, first it goes through the radiative zone and the convective zone. Then it goes through the photosphere and the sun’s atmosphere. The chromosphere is the atmosphere's inner layer while the corona is the outside one. (see diagram)The corona is very hot, it reaches 1.1 million degrees celsius.
Energy travels in waves and sometimes it takes them 1 million years to get outside the sun! Outside the sun the waves go in all different directions and it takes 8 mins for it to get to earth. When a half of earth faces the sun it gets more sunlight than the other side; this means that it is day on this side and night on the other half which faces away from the sun. When the earth turns, a different part of it faces the sun, and it keeps on changing from day to night.
Sometimes the moon places itself in between the sun and earth, this is called a solar eclipse; It is usually dark when there is a solar eclipse, this is because the moon is blocking out the sun so it looks like night time. But that only happens if it is a total eclipse, it is called a total eclipse because the sun is fully hidden as a partial eclipse is when only part of the sun is hidden. Total eclipses can be seen on earth every year and a half even though they only last for a short time. The longest solar eclipse was 7 minutes long which meant that one part of earth was like night at day time.
The weather on earth is caused by the sun, as it’s sunlight heats up rivers, oceans and lakes making the water evaporate into the air turning into clouds. When the clouds get too heavy and the will rain or snow the water back down to earth. This is called the water cycle and the sun’s warmth causes this. Everyone knows that earth has storms but what some people don’t know it that the sun has storms as well. The sun’s storms are most like earths except without rain, they are made of huge bands very hot gas the size of 10 earths. Particles or tiny bits of matter, from a solarwind, gets blown out out of the sun at 1.6 million km per hour!
We Learn about the sun by using special tools to study it some of these machines are sent into space to do special tasks. Some people take pictures of the sun with solar telescopes; telescopes are objects that make far away things look closer than what they really are. The people use these solar telescopes to take pictures to look at instead of looking at the sun directly because if we do that we would have very sore eyes. Another special tool is a satellite. A satellite is a machine sent into space to measure the sun’s heat, light, and particles. One satellite found sounds like a drum coming from the sun, and it makes these sounds every 5 minutes!
Every little piece of life on earth needs the sun as the sun gives light and heat to them; for instance the sun gives light to plants and the plat uses the light to create it’s food using photosynthesis. Then there is animals, some animals eat the plants then other animals eat the animals that eat the plants, Kind of like the cow eat the plants and we eat the cow. plants and animals like these form a food chain, as food is what gives animals and plants energy, The sun supplies energy as well this energy is called solar energy. Some toys and water tanks run on this energy. There are even cars that run on the energy as well!
Every day the sun sends out it’s light heat and energy, but even though we don’t see these things they are still there. We feel the heat on our skin, we can see because of the light and we live because of the sun’s energy. As long as the sun still shines we can still live here. But the sun can not stay forever when it’s time is up it will grow really big and swallow up earth and all the other planets. But you do not need to worry the sun still has at least 5 billion years to keep on shining.
See what did I tell you the Sun does impact life here on earth, by giving us light, heat, and energy.
