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Structure of the Sun Notes
Our Sun
Our sun is a medium sized, medium
temperature (yellow) star in the middle of
its life cycle.
 It only looks big because it’s so much
closer to us than any other star
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Outer Atmosphere: Corona
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The Sun’s Outer
Atmosphere
Too thin for us to see
Extends out very far!!
Chromoshpere:
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Also too faint for us to
see
Only visible during a
solar eclipse
Deep red color
Photosphere:
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The layer of the sun
that we can see
The “surface” of the
sun
The sun does not
have a solid surface,
just a giant ball of gas
(hydrogen and
helium)
Convection Zone:

Hotter gases rise to the
surface and cooler
gases sink to circulate
in convection currents
Radiation Zone:
Very dense
 Atoms are very closely packed together
 Takes light 100,000 or more years to pass
through this zone

Core:
Center of the sun
 Where the sun’s energy is produced
through nuclear fusion
 Hydrogen fuses into helium releasing a lot
of energy (some of the mass is converted
into energy)
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The Structure of the Sun
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The structure of the Sun