Brush Up on Your Solar Knowledge with These Science Facts About the Sun (25 pics)

Posted in INTERESTING       26 Sep 2013       16111       2 GALLERY VIEW

It’s really bright

Ok, so you knew that, but did you know that it’s brighter than 85% of everything else in the entire Milky Way?

It’s not the brightest thing on Earth though

That record belongs to the skybeam at the Luxor Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.

It was a monster

At least that’s what they used to think back in the day. One legend said it was a man with 3 eyes and 4 arms that was abandoned by his spouse for being too bright.

It causes revolutions

That’s right, American historians and Russian scientists have connected revolutions to sunspots. Don’t believe us?

The proof is in the pudding

The American Revolution, French Revolution, Paris Commune, and both Russian Revolutions fell near times of maximum solar activity.

It’s not yellow

Most photos of the sun depict it as being orange, red, yellow or a combination of the three. In reality, the sun is white.  It appears yellow to us because of the blue light in the Earth’s atmosphere.

Sunspots were a secret

Galileo was the first to notice sunspots but he hid the discovery for fear of being persecuted.

Tidal Energy

The sun accounts for 44% of the Earth’s tidal energy while the moon accounts for the remainder.

The Sun can make us taller

When the sun and moon are in apogee, or pulling the Earth in the same direction, our bodies our stretched albeit only microscopically.

Superstition

In India pregnant women are sometimes kept indoors during an eclipse for fear that their babies will be born with cleft lips.

Nuclear Mayhem
The same men who discovered the sun’s source of power helped build the atomic bomb.
It will make you sneeze

25% of people sneeze when exposed to sunlight.

The Attishoo Syndrome
That sneezing thing we just talked about? Well, it’s a real problem to people like fighter pilots. In fact, it has been dubbed the attishoo syndrome.
Condensed sunlight

Tromso, in the far north of Norway receives the same amount of annual sunlight as the tropics except all within a 10 week period.

It is heavy

Well, technically it’s massive. In fact, it accounts for about 99% of the mass of the entire solar system.

Comet tails

If it weren’t for the sun, then comets wouldn’t leave a trail of icy particles that always point away from the sun. Why away?

Solar wind
It’s a celestial breeze made up of electrons and protons that have escaped from the Sun’s gravity and it is responsible for blowing those comet tails away from the sun.
1 million years
It takes energy in the sun’s core about 1 million years to reach the surface.
1.5 million candles
If you cut off a postage stamp sized portion of the sun it would shine with the intensity of 1.5 million candles.
Green flash
Everyone knows the sun can be yellow and orange but did you know that it can be green? This phenomenon known as green flash is very rare.
A lot of power
Every year the Earth absorbs 94 billion megawatts of energy from the sun. That’s immensely more than the world’s total energy use.
Less than 30 days
All the energy used by man since the dawn of civilization is roughly equal to 30 days of the sun’s energy.
Nuclear Bombs
Every second the sun gives off the same amount of energy as 10 billion nuclear bombs.
3 minutes
If all the Sun’s energy were directed at Earth it would take only 3 minutes for it to melt the crust.
The solar wind is fast

Remember that solar wind we talked about? Well it’s no joke. It moves on average about 280 miles per second and takes only 4 days to reach the Earth.



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Credits:  list25.com


2   Comments ?
2
1.
eliza.engel.9 11 year s ago
of course the sun is not the brightest thing on earth. the sun is 93,000,000 miles away from earth
       
0
2.
xyclos 11 year s ago
the color temperature of the sun is blue. the sky is blue because of the sun, not the other way around.
       
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