Discovery of high frequency waves: new light from the Sun
Nowadays, we know a lot about our closest Star if we think about just a century ago; however we still know little more than nothing if we imagine the potential of the discovery we could make in the future. A discovery about solar waves is the proof of that: technology and knowledge are never at the finish line when Space is about. In today’s issue we’ll start from a recently published article on Nature Astronomy to talk a little about the Sun.
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They study the waves generated by earthquakes and based on their structure a lot can be known.
Have you ever wondered how do geologists know so deeply (yes: literally, deeply) down inside our planet? How can they be so certain about the physical state of the elements that are present below Earth’s surface, their composition and distribution? They study the waves generated by earthquakes and based on their structure a lot can be known. The same is planned to be done in the future on the Moon (we’ll talk about it!) and also on the Sun.
Helioseismology, on its classic approach relies on acoustic waves. They have been successfully applied to depict the internal rotation and structure of our closest Star. However, acoustic waves are insensitive to properties such as magnetic fields, turbulent viscosity and entropy gradients in the deep convective zone, which are critical inputs to more complex and detailed theories of solar dynamics.
Mass 1.989 · 1030 kg
Radius 6.960 · 108 m
Mean Density 1409 kg/m3
Central Density 1.6 · 105 kg/m3
Air Density (on Earth, Standard Atm.) 1.225 kg/m3
Luminosity 3.9 · 1026 W
Effective temperature 5785 K
Central temperature 1.5 · 107 K
Spectral class G2 V
When the Sun formed about 5000 million years ago, its composition was the same everywhere as its present surface composition.
Since energy production is concentrated at the very centre, hydrogen is consumed most rapidly there and about 5% of the hydrogen in the Sun has been turned into helium. This is the core of the star, which can be imagined as a sphere, concentrated in the middle of the whole celestial body. It is then wound by a radiative layer which is indeed very thick and extends up to the 70% of the whole solar radius: the radiative zone. Going outward in this layer, the temperature drops so much that the gas is no more fully ionized at the end of this zone.
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Some has already been published about this topic, and more will be in the future!
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