Solar Science and Technology SPT 3201 Year Three

The solar structure

Our solar system is composed of the sun and all things which orbit around it i.e. the earth, the
other eight planets, comets and asteroids.

The sun

The sun is 150 million km (93 million miles) away from the earth. (the distance varies
throughout the year because the earth is not a perfect sphere). The sun is an average star and it is
the most important star. It looks bigger and brighter since it is the closed star to the earth.

The sun is made up of hydrogen and helium. I.e. three quarters of the sun is made up of hydrogen
(75% of the mass and about 92.1% of the number of atoms). A quarter of the sun is made up of
helium (25% of the mass and 7.8% of the number of atoms).

The sun is a plasma. Plasma is a hot ionized gas consisting of approximately equal number of
positively charged ions and negatively charged electrons.

The sun is an immense fusion reactor. Fusion means that hydrogen atoms are combined to make
helium. This occurs because the sun is very hot.

Structure (composition) of the sun

The sun is made up of two major parts;

(i) The interior

The interior of the sun

The interior has three layers

 The core
 The radiative zone
 The convective zone

The core

The solar interior is composed of the core. It occupies the inner most quarter of the sun’s radius.
It comprises of about 25% of the interior radius.
The core is the hot, dense central region in which the nuclear reactions that power the sun take
place.

The core is the hottest part of the sun and the solar system. It has a density of 150g/cm 3 and a
temperature of 15 million Kelvins. It is made up of hot dense plasma (ions and electrons).

The energy produced through fusion in the sun’s core powers the sun and produces all the heat
and light that we receive here on earth. There are two distinct reactions in which fusion takes
place (four hydrogen nuclei may eventually result in one helium nucleus).

(i) The proton-proton chain reaction. This is responsible for most of the sun’ released
energy. It is thought to be the most important one in the solar core.
(ii) The CNO cycle (Carbon-Nitrogen-Oxygen cycle). This generates less than 10% of
the total solar energy. This involves carbon atom which are not consumed in the
overall process.

Radiative zone

It is the middle layer of the sun’s interior. It extends about three quarters of the way to the
surface (i.e. from 25% to 85% of the solar radius).

The radiative zone is the area of very tightly packed plasma. Energy is transported mainly by
electromagnetic radiations (as photons). The plasma density is very high and radiation gets
bounced around several times following a zig-zag path outward.

It takes several hundred thousand years for radiation to move from the core to the top of the
radiative zone (i.e. to move through the radiative zone).

The convective zone

It is the outer layer of the sun’s interior. It starts at about 85% of the solar radius and extends to
just below the surface. It is a region in which the change in temperature with increasing radius is
so rapid that the sun becomes un stable to convection.

Convection consists of mass movement of plasma within the sun which usually forms circular
convection currents with the heated plasma ascending and the cooled plasma descending.

In the outer most of the two shells (where temperature drops below 2 million kelvin), the plasma
in the sun’s interior is too cool and opaque to allow radiation to pass. Instead huge convection
currents form and large bubbles of hot plasma move up wards the surface. Here energy is
transported quickly through the outer convective zone.

Tacholine
This is the region of the sun between the radiative interior and the rotating outer convective zone.

It is the outer third of the sun by radius. This causes the region to have a very large shear as the
rotation rate changes very rapidly. The convective exterior rotates as a normal fluid with
differential rotation with the poles rotating slowly and the equator rotating quickly. The radiative
interior exhibits solid body rotation possibly due to a fossil field.

The sun's atmosphere

This lies on top of the sun and it has got three layers (from the inner most to the outer most)

(i) Photosphere

(ii) Chromosphere

(iii) Corona

Photosphere

Photo means light. Therefore it is light sphere. Photosphere is the visible layer of the sun. it is
about 300km thick. Most of the sun's visible light originates from this region. The photosphere is
about 5800K in temperature.

Chromosphere

Chromo means colour. Therefore it is colour sphere. Chromosphere is the second layer in the
atmosphere. The chromosphere's rosy red colour is only seen during eclipses.

The chromosphere is normally invisible. This is because of the great brightness of the
photosphere. The density of the chromosphere decreases with distance from the centre of the sun.

Corona

Corona means crown. The corona is a plasma that surrounds the sun and other stars. The sun's
corona extends millions of kilometres into the outer space. It is visible during total eclipses of the
Sun as a pearly white crown surrounding the Sun. the sun's corona is much hotter than the visible
surface of the sun (photosphere). The outer edges of the corona are constantly being transported
away due to open magnetic flux and hence generating the solar wind.

The corona is not always evenly distributed across the surface of the sun. during periods of quite,
the corona is more or less confined to the equatorial regions with coronal holes covering the
polar regions.
During the sun's active periods, the corona is evenly distributed over the equatorial and polar
regions.

The transition region

This is a thin and very irregular layer of the sun's atmosphere that separates the hot corona from
the much cooler chromosphere. Heat flows down from the corona into the chromosphere and in
the process produces this thin region where temperature changes rapidly. Hydrogen is ionised at
this rapid change in temperature and is therefore difficult to see. The light emitted is dominated
by ions (such as carbon, oxygen and silicon). These ions emit light in the ultraviolet region of the
solar spectrum that is only accessible from space.

Granules

Granules on the photosphere of the Sun are caused by convection currents of plasma within the
Sun's convective zone. The grainy appearance of the solar photosphere is produced by the tops of
these convective cells and is called granulation. The rising part of the granules is located in the
centre where the plasma is hotter. The outer edge of the granules is darker due to the cooler
descending plasma. A typical granule has a diameter on the order of 1,500 kilometres and lasts 8
to 20 minutes before dissipating. At any one time, the Sun's surface is covered by about 4 million
granules.

Features of the sun

• sun spots
• prominences
• solar wind
• solar flares

Sun spots

These are areas of gas on the sun's surface (photosphere) that appear darker than the surrounding
areas. They are regions of reduced surface temperature caused by concentrations of magnetic
flux that inhibit convection.

Sun spots usually appear in pairs of opposite magnetic polarity. There number varies according
to approximately11 year solar cycle.

Prominence

A prominence is a large, bright, gaseous feature extending outward from the Sun's surface, often
in a loop shape. Prominences are found in the Sun's surface in the photosphere, and extend
outwards into the Sun's corona.

Prominences contain much cooler plasma, similar in composition to that of the chromosphere.
While the corona consists of extremely hot ionized gases, known as plasma, which do not emit
much visible light, The prominence plasma is typically a hundred times more luminous and
denser than the coronal plasma.

Solar wind

The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun,
(the corona). This plasma consists of mostly electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic
energy between 0.5 and 10 keV.

Within the solar-wind plasma is the magnetic field. The solar wind varies in density, temperature
and speed over time and over solar latitude and longitude. Its particles can escape the Sun's
gravity because of their high energy resulting from the high temperature of the corona, which in
turn is a result of the coronal magnetic field.

The heliosphere

This is a bubble in space produced by the solar wind. Although electrically neutral atoms from

interstellar space can penetrate this bubble, virtually all of the material in the heliosphere
emanates from the Sun itself.

Solar flares

A solar flare is a sudden flash of increased brightness on the Sun it is usually observed near its
surface and in close proximity to a sunspot group. Solar flares affect all layer of the atmosphere.

Flares produce electromagnetic radiation across the electromagnetic spectrum at all wavelengths,
from radio waves to gamma rays.

Majority of the flares are not visible to the naked eye since most of the energy is spread over
frequencies outside the visual range and so they must be observed with special instruments.
Flares occur in active regions around sunspots, where intense magnetic fields penetrate the
photosphere to link the corona to the solar interior. Flares are powered by the sudden release of
magnetic energy stored in the corona. X-rays and UV radiation emitted by solar flares can affect
Earth's ionosphere and disrupt long-range radio communications.