The Sun And Its Importance To Planet Earth

By Haywood Hunter


There exist billions of stars in the sky. Among them, the Sun is the closest to the earth. The sun lies in the middle of the solar system. It makes one rotation every 27 days. Formed about 4.5 billion years ago, it is assumed to be in its midlife. It is expected to continue shining for about five billion more years.

The sun's surface is known as the photosphere. Its temperature is about 5,778 K. The sun's core is, however, much hotter, with its temperature being about 15.7 million K. All this energy is produced via nuclear fusion. This is a nuclear reaction where two hydrogen nuclei fuse to form one helium nucleus, accompanied by release of energy.

A distance of 149.6 million kilometers separates the sun and the earth. The sun has a diameter of 1.392 million kilometers and an equatorial circumference of 4.379 million kilometers. These values are 109 times higher than the corresponding earth's measurements. Its surface area is 11,990 times that of earth, measuring 6.0877 trillion kilometer squared. Its volume is 1.3 trillion times that of earth.

The energy from the sun is called solar energy. It is received by the earth through radiation. Since only a fraction of the radiated energy can be absorbed by our planet, a lot of it is reflected back to space. Life on earth depends on the absorbed energy. It is also responsible for our weather, tides and the water cycle.

Plants use solar energy to make their own food, through a process called photosynthesis. This is the basic process that makes food available to all other living things. The sun is also responsible for the energy stored in fossils, as well as petroleum and coal.

Providing unlimited light and heat, the sun is the main source of energy to the earth. Extra applications of solar energy include lighting, generating electricity and in enhancing growth of plants in green houses. Considering all these factors, it is true to say that there can be no life on earth without the sun.




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