Transcript The Sun Presentation

THE SUN
BY LIAM CUMMINGS
THE SUN
• The sun is the solar
system’s power source
• It provides light on
earth to have life,
night and day and
plants.
INFO
• The sun is a big gas ball
made out of helium, which
is formed when hydrogen
atoms fuse together.
• The Greek’s named it
Helios, from which we
retain the adjective
heliocentric of the sun.
What will become of it?
Like everything else, the sun will not last forever. But the time
it has left may seem forever with you.
The sun has about 4-5 billion years left and when it runs out
the results are devastating.
The Sun's core will collapse under its own gravity. At the same
time, its atmosphere will become unstable and start to expand,
transforming the Sun into a huge red giant star.
How will this affect Earth?. Although it will fare better than
closer planets like Mercury, which will be completely engulfed
by the swelling Sun, Earth will be entirely vaporised and all
life on our planet will end.
What Else?
There’s more. Over the following billion years the Sun
will gradually die. As a star's core crashes inwards, it
eventually becomes hot enough to ignite another of its
constituent atoms, helium. Helium atoms fuse together
to form carbon. Helium burns faster than hydrogen, so
this stage is much shorter and only lasts a few million
years.
What happens when Helium runs
out?
When the helium supply runs out, the centre
again collapses and the atmosphere again
inflates. The Sun isn't massive enough to
fully re-ignite its core for a third time and so
goes on expanding, shedding its atmosphere
in a series of bursts. The dying core
eventually forms a white dwarf - a spherical
diamond the size of the Earth, made of
carbon and oxygen. From this point on the
Sun will gradually fade away, becoming
dimmer and dimmer until its light is finally
snuffed out.
In 4 billion years time, this thing won’t exist any more
Facts
In the middle ages the Sun was thought to have orbited the
Earth. It wasn’t until Nicolaus Copernicus in the 16th
century came up with the idea of the Earth actually orbited
the Sun. He was absolutely right, but people ignored him,
until Isaac Newton came up with the formula for his laws of
motion, successfully modelling the dynamics of the solar
system.
More Facts
• The temperature of the sun can
reach astonishing temperatures
of 5500 degrees centigrade on
it’s surface and a sweltering
15.6 million degrees centigrade
in it’s core!
To find out more go to:
www.bbc.co.uk/planets