| The Nearest Star |
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| Posted: 24-01-2006 , 00:05 GMT |
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The Sun is a star. It is only one of the billions of other stars found in the Milky Way galaxy. The Sun is at the center of our Solar System. The pull of its gravity locks everything within a range of over 600 million-km into orbit around it. And so, everything in our Solar System travels (orbits) around the Sun. The Sun, however, travels around the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
The Sun is the nearest star to our planet Earth; the rest are so far away that we only see them as little dots of light.
Like the other stars, the Sun is a flaming ball of gases; it gives us light and keeps us warm. Without it there would be no life on Earth.
Even though the Sun uses up to 4 million tons of its fuel every second, it still has enough to burn for another 6 billion years.
The Sun is made up of layers, like an onion. In the sun’s core, the temperature is an incredible 15 million Celsius (27 million Fahrenheit). On the surface, the temperature is 6,000 Celsius (11,000 Fahrenheit). Sunspots are areas of gas that are about 2,000 Celsius (3,600 Fahrenheit) cooler than the rest of the surface. Sunspots look like dark spots on the surface of the Sun, because they shine less brightly.
Our Solar system ends where the gravity of other stars becomes stronger than the gravity of the Sun. Objects are pulled towards other stars and away from the Sun.
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