Sun

From RationalWiki
(Difference between revisions)
Jump to: navigation, search
(What the sun is: General clean-up. Does no one here know when to use an em-dash versus parenthesis versus a semicolon versus a normal comma? (Neither do I...))
Line 1: Line 1:
[[File:Sun_in_X-Ray.png|thumb|The Sun (if you can see X-rays)]]{{copper}}
+
[[File:Sun_in_X-Ray.png|thumb|The Sun (if you can see X-rays)]]
 
The '''Sun''' is that big,<ref>Well, compared to the [[planet|balls of rock, gas]], or [[comet|ice]] that orbit it. As far as stars go it's pretty average.</ref> hot, yellow, incredibly bright round thing in the sky.
 
The '''Sun''' is that big,<ref>Well, compared to the [[planet|balls of rock, gas]], or [[comet|ice]] that orbit it. As far as stars go it's pretty average.</ref> hot, yellow, incredibly bright round thing in the sky.
  

Revision as of 10:17, 18 February 2012

The Sun (if you can see X-rays)

The Sun is that big,[1] hot, yellow, incredibly bright round thing in the sky.

Contents

What the sun is

You can't miss it, unless it's nighttime, your climate sucks, or you're the person who said that evolution couldn't be true because it violates the laws of thermodynamics and would require "a huge outside source feeding energy into the planet" to make it work.[2] Astronomers say that the sun is a star and that the stars are all suns; astrologers, on the other hand, would probably say something different. The main difference between the sun and other stars is that other stars are very much further away from the Earth, hence look smaller (which is why they were originally thought to be much different to the sun; modern technology has seen off that idea, however). Proxima Centauri is the nearest star to the Solar System, being just over 4 light years away.

Modern educated people generally think that the Earth orbits the sun, based on the mythological concepts of "Observable Reality" and "Empirical Inquiry." People infected with certain strains of religious fundamentalism, on the other hand, know that the Sun goes round the Earth[3] based on the entirely factual history and science text, The Holy Bible

The Sun, as the most hallowed object in the sky, essential to all life, has the seventh (or first, depending on your calendric issues) day of the week named for her: Sunday.

Specifications

  • Radius = 6.96E8 m
  • Mass = 1.9891E30 kg
  • GM = 1.3271244E20 m³/s²
  • Density = 1.41E3 kg/m³
    • Core = 1.56E5 kg/m³
  • Temperature = 5778 K (blackbody)
    • Central = 1.58E7 K
    • Average = 7.88E6 K
    • Corona > 1E6 K (varies)
  • Distance from galactic core ≅ 2.5E20 m
  • Distance from Earth = 1.4959787E11 m
  • Escape velocity = 617.6 km/s
  • Luminosity = 3.846E26 W
  • Mean molar mass = 0.638 g/mol
  • Gravitational binding energy = 6.1E41 J
  • Pressure (volumetric mean) = 1.4E14 Pa
    • Central = 2.4E16 Pa

See also

Don't see also

  • The Sun - the paper that gives tabloids a bad name and steals its own name from a certain yellow star you probably just finished reading about.

Footnotes

  1. Well, compared to the balls of rock, gas, or ice that orbit it. As far as stars go it's pretty average.
  2. From FSTDT, the all-time classic quote (although the blatant description of the sun in the quote screams Poe's Law).
  3. Technically one can set up the frame of reference such that everything including the universe as a whole revolves around the Earth. However, the other system uses simpler equations.
Personal tools
Namespaces

Variants
Actions
Navigation
Community
Tools
support