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Our Sun

What are the Sun's effects on Earth?

Our Sun is a massive ball of gas at the center of our solar system. The Sun is essential to everything on our planet; the sun provides us with light, heat, and other forms of energy for our planet.

The energy that we receive from the Sun originates from nuclear fusion reactions that occur deep inside the sun’s core because the core is extremely hot and dense. Even though nuclei have a positive charge, the cores temperature and density are high enough to force nuclei together. The fusion produces energy by converting nuclear matter into energy.

The Sun is responsible for all the life on Earth. Plants need sunlight in order for them to survive via the process of photosynthesis. Most life on Earth needs warmth, and in order to survive it needs a basic form of food and majority of the creatures at the bottom of the food chain need plants for food. These creatures are food for creatures who are higher up on the food chain. How does this affect us? It affects us because we are also on that food chain, for we eat both plants and meat.

Also all of the weather that occurs on our planet is because of the Sun. The Sun heats the earth unevenly due to the earth's terrain. The difference in the hot and cold climate around the world, regulates the movement of hot and cold air around the world, which creates changes in the air pressure, thus creating wind. Also the Sun also is the cause of the natural process of the water cycle; firstly the sun heats a body of water which turns the water (liquid) into water vapor (gas) and then the vapor condenses which turns transforms into clouds (liquid) and when too much water has condensed and the air cannot hold on to it any more, it precipitates in the form of rain, snow or hail and the cycle is repeated.

We have seasons because of two main reasons, the Earth's tilted axis and our rotation around the sun. As the Earth orbits the sun, the tilt causes different parts of the globe to orientate towards the Sun during different times of the year. The tilt is also the reason why summer is more warmer than the winter (in both hemisphere) is because the Sun's rays hit the Earth at a more direct angle during the summer and this is also why the days are much longer during the summer. So that means when its winter, the Sun's rays hit the Earth at an extreme angle that the days are very short and much colder than the summer.

The Sun also causes many natural phenomena that can be seen from the Earth, the most well-known ones are auroras. So what is an aurora? An aurora is a natural display of light that can only been seen during the night. Auroral display in the northern hemisphere is called aurora borealis and in the southern hemisphere it is called aurora australis. Auroras are created due to continuous flow of electrically charged particles that get reach the Earth's magnetic field and gets trapped in it. Then the particles are attracted towards the two magnetic poles which is the north pole and the south. So when these particles come in contact with the atoms of our atmosphere, energy is release in the form of what we see as auroras.

The majority of the energy emitted by the sun is seen as light and is form of radiation known as infrared rays, we feel these rays as heat. This form of radiation is known as electromagnetic radiation.

Electromagnetic radiation is made up electrical and magnetic energy. We think of electromagnetic radiation as waves of energy or as particle-like "packets" of energy called photons. Electromagnetic radiation consists of six bands of energy in its spectrum, it is organized in this fashion from the least energetic to the most energetic. The following bands or waves are listed in their natural order, radio waves, infrared rays, visible light, ultraviolet rays, X rays, and gamma rays. The last type of wave is microwaves, but they are sometimes considered to be a separate band than the rest. The length of the radiation can be determined by how much energy it has. For example, gamma rays would have a much shorter wave length than radio waves. But the speed that all the waves travel at is the same 186,282 miles (299,792 kilometers) per second, otherwise known as the speed of light. Going at this speed it takes the photons approximately 8 minutes to reach Earth. Only about 40% of the electromagnetic radiation actually reaches the Earth's surface.Some of the visible light and infrared rays are blocked off by the atmosphere, but all of the ultraviolet rays, and all the X rays and gamma rays are stopped from entering our atmosphere. The only wave of the spectrum that fully penetrates our atmosphere are the radio waves.

The other from of radiation that the Sun emits is particle radiation, where large amounts of protons and electrons are flown outwards from the sun as the solar wind. This form of radiation cannot penetrate our atmosphere because of the Earth's magnetic field. Because its is extremely energetic its can be hazardous to astronauts in orbit or orbiting satellites.Since that cannot go through our atmosphere, when the radiation collides with the atoms of our atmosphere, it creates geomagnetic storms, disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field. These storms are capable of disrupting electrical appliances on Earth, as well as overloading powerlines leading to major blackouts.

At the bottom is a Bill Nye The Science Guy episode about the Sun, the video is in three separate parts.

media type="custom" key="3904147"Bill Nye The Science Guy - Sun - Part 1

media type="custom" key="3904149"Bill Nye The Science Guy - Sun - Part 2

media type="custom" key="3904155"Bill Nye The Science Guy - Sun - Part 3

Works Cited

Melton-Knocke, Melanie. "From Blue Moons to Black Holes: A Basic Guide to Astronomy, Outer Space, and Space Exploration." __Prometheus Books__ (2005) Monday, May 25, 2009.

Brian Dunbar. //NASA- Sun//. Brian Dunbar. 29 Nov. 2007. NASA. 25 May 2009 

//Sun//. There In The Sky For Me. 28 May 2009 

Ritter, Michael E. //Earth - Sun relations and seasons.// Ritter, Michael E. The Physical Environment. 28 May 2009 

Brian Dunbar. NASA - Aurora. Brian Dunbar. 29 Nov. 2007. NASA. 30 May 2009 