christopher cooper

foreword by
david spergel, phd
chair, department of astrophysical sciences, princeton University

preface by
madhUlika gUhathakUrta, phd
lead scientist, living with a star program, nasa

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 contents
Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
solar exploration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
The Birth of Our Sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
the big bang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
the early Universe in microwaves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
star nurseries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
going supernova . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
fusion: energy of combination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
two’s company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
The Structure of Our Sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
layers of our sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
the solar wind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
the sun’s rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
the sun’s magnetism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
The Importance of Our Sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
how far away is the sun? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
let there be light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
evolution of sight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
the miracle (and curse) of photosynthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
The Worship of Our Sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
The History of Our Sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
the aristotelian model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
the ptolemaic model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
heliocentrism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
who invented the telescope? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
spectroscopy: shedding light on the movement and composition of stars . . 127
modern telescopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
The Power of Our Sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
the earth’s magnetosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
solar power: harnessing the sun’s energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
power over power: the perfect storm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
the solar cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
The Future of Our Sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
running out of gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
the red giant phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
the white dwarf phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
the black dwarf phase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
looking ahead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Photo Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224

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 foreword
Why study the Sun? Why explore the planets of our solar system? Why try to understand the properties of the
rich variety of stars and planets that fill the Milky Way, our home galaxy? Why peer out in space and back in
time and observe the earliest galaxies? Why characterize the leftover heat from the big bang? For me, there are
both practical and poetical answers to these questions.

The same laws of physics are valid throughout the universe; thus, by studying the extreme environments
of space, we can gain insights into the workings of nature. During the solar eclipse of 1868, the French
astronomer Jules Janssen and the British astronomer Norman Lockyer first observed helium in the spectrum
of the Sun. Today, helium is used in applications ranging from MRI scanners in hospitals to filling children’s
balloons. While we do not know the nature of the dark matter that fills our galaxy, perhaps someday our
descendants will put it to practical use.

Astronomical research, like all basic research, can also sometimes lead to surprising spin-off technologies. In
the early 1990s, John O’Sullivan was searching for radio waves from accreting black holes. He and his team
devised a novel computer chip that would let them clear up the radio signals and reduce interference. This chip
is an important part of the technology behind WiFi, a technology that is revolutionizing how we interact with our
computers, phones, cars, and even our homes.

The space environment can also affect our lives directly and dramatically. A comet once wiped out most of
the life on this planet and will likely do so again sometime in the next few hundred million years. Solar flares
from the Sun regularly disrupt not only satellite communications but also our electric power grids. The Sun’s
variations likely have dramatic effects on our climate.

While these practical applications are important, most astronomers do not study the stars so that they can
produce new technologies or find a new source of levitation for balloons. We try to understand the universe
because of its aesthetic and mathematical beauty. The rich undulating structure of a solar flare or the spidery
filaments of a nebula are stunning images. However, the deep mathematical symmetries of the underlying
physical principles that govern the formation of spiral arms in a distant galaxy, or the behavior of convective
cells that pockmark the Sun, are even more enchanting than the pretty pictures to those of us fortunate enough
to study astrophysics. The underlying and universal laws of nature appear to be simultaneously both simple and
capable of producing tremendous complexity.

We all know that it is dangerous to stare at the Sun. However, there is a reward associated with the struggle
of trying to comprehend its nature. As Edmund Burke, the English philosopher wrote in 1759: “The passion
caused by the great and sublime in nature is astonishment, and astonishment is that state of the soul in which
all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror. The mind is so entirely filled with its object that it
cannot entertain any other, nor reason on that object which fills it. Astonishment is the effect of the sublime in
its highest degree.” May your life be touched by moments of astonishment!

David Spergel, PhD

Chair, Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University

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 preface
As the lead scientist for NASA’s Living With a Star program, I have read hundreds of books about the Sun, ranging
from technical tomes for experts to comic books for kids. In short, I’ve seen it all. Or so I thought until I picked up
Our Sun: Biography of a Star by Christopher Cooper. His fresh, compelling storytelling made me realize that there is
something new under the Sun after all.

Opening the book, the first thing that strikes the reader is the volume’s visual appeal. The author recognizes that
the Sun is not just a blinding spot of white light in the sky, but rather a profoundly beautiful object. “NASA’s Solar
Dynamics Observatory [is] producing images of the Sun unlike anything anyone had ever seen before. . . . Words
cannot do them justice,” writes Cooper. This very correct attitude is reflected in the visual beauty of the book’s
pictography and layout. Every turn of the page brings another compelling image arranged in storytelling order. The
overall effect is to propel the reader forward, flipping pages to see what comes next.

But this book is not just eye candy, it’s brain candy. The images and illustrations are selected with the skill of an
experienced teacher. You can learn a great deal about the Sun—and the universe it burns in—merely by flipping
through the book and looking at the pictures. Textbooks dare you to pick them up; this book dares you to put it
down. I could not.

It is really unfair to compare Cooper’s biography of the Sun to a textbook, because it is such a different thing. A
textbook doles out information in disconnected morsels small enough to memorize. Cooper’s tale, on the other
hand, is holistic, with multiple themes resonating in every chapter. It is hard to go more than a few pages without
experiencing an “ah-ha moment” as some new link is forged across the “void” of space and time or art and science.

Cooper deftly weaves the story of the Sun into the tapestry of human experience, with threads ranging from the trivial
to the profound. Humans are creatures of the Sun. We read by its reflected light, we receive its warmth on our skin,
we eat food that grew in sunlight. Human biology has evolved to depend on sunlight. In a fascinating aside, the
author explores impacts that might be related to humans’ declining exposure to their natural habitat—that is, the
sunlit outdoors.

As a child growing up in middle-class India, I drove my father crazy, peppering him with constant questions about
our place in the cosmos. “Where do we come from?” I would ask. Being more than just a banker—he was also a
philosopher and mathematician—he would respond with reason and logic: “Look at a circle. Can you tell me where
the end is?” The circular form, in the shape of the Sun, became the gravitational point of my career in heliophysics.

Cooper’s story of the Sun begins in the beginning, which he treats much as my father did: “Speaking of ‘the
beginning’ is a bit misleading,” Cooper writes. “The prevailing theory is that sometime over 13.79 billion years ago,
the universe was an infinitely dense, infinitely hot, and inconceivably tiny speck. . . . No one knows how long the
speck had existed—or even if time existed—prior to the Big Bang. The universe might have been there forever,
which makes defining ‘the beginning’ a bit like identifying the start of a circle. Instead, we must choose a point and
talk about time relative to that point. For our purposes, the Big Bang is as good a starting point as any.”

This is the kind of book my father would have given to his curious daughter—and she would have loved it then,
just as she does today.

Madhulika Guhathakurta, PhD

Lead Scientist, Living With a Star Program, NASA

The views expressed in this foreword are purely those of Dr. Guhathakurta.

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 INTROducTION
Our Sun is one star among some 300 billion in
the galaxy. Our galaxy is one among more than
300 billion in the universe. With a vastness this
incomprehensible, it is easy to feel like we are
mere specks of sand on an endless shore. But
our Sun is special. Though roughly 150 million
kilometers (about 93 million miles) separate
us, we could not be more connected. Literally,
everything you see comes from the Sun. The
words you are reading now are really photons
that left the Sun a little over eight minutes ago
only to bounce off this page and into your eyes.
We owe our very existence to our Sun. It provides
just enough heat to keep our fragile bodies from
freezing to ice or burning to a crisp. Every bite
of food we eat we owe to the Sun, whose energy
is converted into plants that provide sustenance
for everything up the food chain.

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 We may not have understood what it was or how it worked, but for millennia humanity has understood the
Sun’s importance. The earliest humans, awestruck by its blazing splendor, left drawings of this closest of stars
on cave walls. Nearly every civilization, no matter where it sprang up on the planet, has revered the Sun. Myths
about the Sun were the basis of the earliest deities of ancient Mesopotamian, Hindu, Egyptian, Chinese, and
Mesoamerican cultures. Before Apollo, the ancient Greeks worshiped the Sun god Helios. Before Jupiter, the
ancient Romans worshiped Sol.

Throughout our history, the Sun has

been central to humanity’s quest for
meaning in the universe. But our
roughly 100,000-year history has been
a brief moment in our Sun’s 4.5-billion-
year life. Only recently, through
advances in science and technology,
have we begun to really understand
our Sun—where it came from, how it
functions, how it affects our lives, and
how it eventually will destroy our planet.

This book was not written for

scientists or for anyone with more
than a rudimentary understanding
of astronomy. For that matter, it was
not written by a scientist either. It was
written by an expert in energy for an
audience with a passing interest in and
an intractable wonder at our closest star.
Like many of you, my earliest memories
of the Sun involve painful burns after
too much exposure. Beyond that, my
knowledge of the Sun consisted of no
more than what I learned from grade-
school science textbooks.

It was my fascination with energy later

in life that sparked an intense curiosity
in the Sun. I wanted to understand
everything I could about energy: where
it came from, how it traveled, how it
was used, and how we could use it
more efficiently. There is simply no
way to understand energy without
understanding our Sun, the battery
that powers nearly everything in the
solar system. But I was no scientist.
To understand the science of the Sun,
I had to break it down into terms a
nonscientist could comprehend. It was
my pursuit of simplicity that was the
On February 24, 2011, a solar flare blew out a huge waving mass of plasma. genesis of this book.

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 Magnetic loops are clearly visible in this image taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory on April 11, 2013.
The bright spot is a midlevel solar flare.

But the science merely sparked an idea. It was the pictures that drove an obsession. In February 2010, the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO). Soon
afterward, it began producing images of the Sun unlike anything anyone had ever seen before (certainly unlike
anything I had ever seen). Words cannot do them justice, which is why the pages that follow are strewn with some
of the most stunning images. It is hard to look at these pictures and not become fascinated with our Sun. Though
they have taught us much about the science of the Sun, these images transcend science. They are works of art that
move the soul in the way only the best art can. They approach the spiritual, the sublime. They remind us not only of
our physical connection to this immense ball of fire, but of the role the Sun has played in the shared development
of all human culture. Everyone on the planet (and everyone who has ever been on the planet) has experienced our
Sun. And, whether you realize it or not, like me, you have been profoundly changed by the experience.

introdUction 13

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 Just as dramatic as the images,
however, is our Sun’s biography, the
story of its birth and development,
and the role it plays in a cosmic
environment whose nature is only
starting to be revealed. When reading
the pages that follow, perhaps you,
too, will wonder anew at the complex
and dynamic relationship our Sun has
with humanity and meet again—or
perhaps for the first time—the famous
(often quirky) individuals who have
played important roles in helping us
understand our Sun’s life.

You will learn about our Sun’s past,

tracing its genealogy all the way back
to the very first seconds of the Big
Bang. You will read about the Sun’s
ambitious parent, how it likely has
long-lost siblings still wandering the
galaxy—and how some scientists
believe one of these siblings may have
stuck around, providing our Sun with
constant (if hidden) companionship.
An engraving of a 1635 illustration of the surface of the Sun by German
astronomer Christoph Scheiner You will discover what makes our
Sun tick, how and why it glows and
spins. You will learn how scientists
recently cracked the mystery of why the Sun’s outermost layer is so much hotter than its inner layers. You will
understand the science behind nuclear fusion (without needing an advanced degree) and why sunspots, solar
flares, and coronal mass ejections form. More importantly, you will understand how all three can dramatically
impact your life as well as gain some insight into why solar activity is important to global climate change. Along
the way, you’ll read about the geopolitical fight over who gets credit for inventing the telescope (and
who should).

You will read about some of the bizarre mythologies surrounding Sun worship in cultures throughout the world.
Yet you may be surprised to learn that some of the ancients had a better understanding of our Sun and how
the universe works than most people did up until the eighteenth century. You will understand the true nature of
light, how we evolved the ability to see, and the miracle (or, for some, the curse) of photosynthesis.

You will be forced to grapple with the fact that the Sun is trying to kill you even as it provides essential
nutrients to keep you alive. You will hear of the new ways we are harnessing the Sun’s energy and gain a better
understanding of the old ways. You will read about the risks our Sun poses for modern electronics and learn
some helpful tips on how to protect yours.

Finally, you will get a good picture of our Sun’s future, including why humanity must figure out a practical
mechanism for interstellar travel if it has any hope of surviving. You will also get a glimpse of what NASA
has planned for the future of solar exploration and a renewed appreciation for the benefits this consistently
underfunded agency brings to people around the world.

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 A modern rendering of the Aztec calendar stone with the Sun god Tonatiuh in the
center. The original stone, found buried beneath Mexico City’s main square in
1790, is about 3.7 meters (12 feet) in diameter and weighs more than 24 tons.

introdUction 15

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 solar exploration
We are fortunate to be living in a time of exciting new discoveries about our Sun. We are beginning to answer
important questions about the structure of the Sun, questions that have perplexed scientists for centuries. Our
expanding understanding of our Sun is due in no small part to investments that NASA made as early as the 1990s
to investigate how solar activity impacts the rest of the solar system. In its 2007 Strategic Plan, NASA proposed
a series of modest-sized solar missions that would deploy in fairly rapid succession to form a fleet of spacecraft
working in tandem to monitor and analyze solar activity. Instead of a single, expensive mission to the Sun, NASA
planned to launch 12 spacecraft, collectively known as the Heliophysics Great Observatory (HGO), positioned
around the Sun, the Earth, and at strategic points between the two. Operating the spacecraft as a single,
integrated observatory will provide multiple measurements of the same event and help fill observational gaps that
occur when satellites monitor events from a fixed perspective. The most important of these spacecraft are:

solar dynamics observatory

On February 11, 2010, NASA launched the flagship of the HGO, the Solar Dynamics Observatory
(SDO). SDO was designed to spend five years investigating how our Sun generates its magnetic field,
how the field is structured, and how solar magnetic energy is released into space. In the course of its
investigation, SDO employs a suite of instruments designed to measure ultraviolet (UV) radiation, map
solar magnetic fields, capture variations in the Sun’s structure over the course of a solar cycle, and,
importantly, to take high-resolution images of the Sun’s surface and atmosphere.

Few were prepared for the jaw-dropping images SDO captured. With its Atmospheric Imaging
Assembly, SDO takes images of the Sun in 10 wavelengths every 10 seconds (one wavelength each
second). Not only has the Assembly resulted in a film-like image series of dramatic disturbances on the
Sun’s surface, it has produced gorgeous multicolored images worthy of framing.

The images in this book speak for themselves. SDO captures the Sun at twice the resolution of any
other solar imager and at four times the resolution that NASA could produce in the late 1990s. This
resolution has already helped NASA make exciting discoveries of solar events never before seen and
provided visual confirmation of events that were once merely theoretical.

Left: An artist’s rendition of NASA’s

Solar Dynamics Observatory

Opposite page: The large dark area

in the Sun’s atmosphere is a coronal
hole, where the Sun’s magnetic field
opens up and allows the fast solar
wind to escape.

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 HMI Dopplergram HMI Magnetogram HMI Continuum
Surface movement Magnetic field polarity Matches visible light
Photosphere Photosphere Photosphere

AIA 1700 Å AIA 4500 Å AIA 1600 Å AIA 304 Å

4,500 Kelvin 6,000 Kelvin 10,000 Kelvin 50,000 Kelvin
Photosphere Photosphere Upper photosphere/ Transition region/
transition region chromosphere

AIA 171 Å AIA 193 Å AIA 211 Å

600,000 Kelvin 1 million Kelvin 2 million Kelvin
Upper transition region/ Corona/flare plasma Active regions
quiet corona

AIA 335 Å AIA 094 Å AIA 131 Å

2.5 million Kelvin 6 million Kelvin 10 million Kelvin
Active regions Flaring regions Flaring regions

The wavelengths observed by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) emphasize specific aspects of the Sun’s surface or atmosphere.
The imagery here is from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI), which focuses on the movement and magnetic properties of the
Sun’s surface, and the Advanced Imaging Assembly (AIA), which shows how solar material moves around the Sun’s atmosphere.

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introdUction 19
The image on the left, taken by STEREO-B (behind), shows a dark vertical line that the image on the right, captured by STEREO-A
(ahead), reveals as a giant prominence bursting through the Sun’s atmosphere.

solar terrestrial relations observatory

On October 26, 2006, NASA launched the Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), two nearly
identical spacecraft that orbit the Sun on nearly the same path as the Earth. While one pulled ahead
of Earth’s orbit, the other fell behind, providing stereoscopic (three-dimensional) images of the Sun. As
their orbits gradually separated, STEREO could monitor the far side of the Sun. For the first time, NASA
was capable of near real-time observation of the Sun from all angles. This allowed much more accurate
detection of sunspots and more timely alerts regarding coronal mass ejections that may originate on the
far side. The STEREO spacecraft
were designed with no mission
end-time. In theory, they
could continue to monitor
the Sun indefinitely.

An artist’s rendition of NASA’s STEREO

spacecraft in orbit around Earth

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 solar and
heliospheric
observatory
The Solar and Heliospheric
Observatory (SOHO) was launched
on December 2, 1995, as a joint
project between NASA and the
European Space Agency (ESA) to
study the Sun over two years. The
spacecraft was placed into an orbit
near the Sun-Earth L1 Point, the point
where the Sun and the Earth have an
equal gravitational pull on the craft.
This orbit enables SOHO to remain
in a fixed position relative to both
the Sun and the Earth. On board it
carries 12 different instruments that
can monitor the Sun independently In this composite image of a fiery coronal mass ejection from
or work in any combination for NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, a separate image of the
coordinated observations. Initially, Sun was enlarged and superimposed over the occulting disk for a
SOHO was intended to investigate the dramatic effect.
Sun’s outer layers, probe its interior
structure, and observe the solar wind.
However, it has remained in active use, becoming the main source of data for predicting solar weather
and alerting Earth to potential hazards coming from the Sun.

reUven ramaty high energy solar

spectrographic imager
NASA launched the Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectrographic Imager (RHESSI) on February
5, 2002, with the mission of studying the causes and impacts of solar flares. The spacecraft contains
custom-made instruments designed to capture images of X-rays and gamma rays emitted by solar
flares. RHESSI has not disappointed. It was the first satellite to capture images of gamma rays emitted
by the Sun. On December 6, 2002, RHESSI also became the first satellite to image the electromagnetic
radiation from a gamma-ray burst, the most energetic type of explosion in the universe. While observing
the Sun, RHESSI caught a glimpse of a burst originating from far outer space and managed to measure
its magnetic polarity.

With these remarkable spacecraft and the instruments they carry (and with newer craft set to launch over the
next few years), we are beginning to unlock the Sun’s secrets and reveal the close connections Earth has with
our closest star. These solar missions are transforming our view of the solar system. As we learn more about the
Sun, we are discovering that the solar system is far more than a set of objects floating in space, bound together
by the force of gravity. What is emerging is an entire cosmic ecosystem, where more than gravity is at work.
Material and energy is shared as forces overlap. Changes in one area may have profound effects on others.
More than ever before, we are beginning to appreciate the Sun’s place in the solar system, less for its enormous
size and intense energy, and more for the complex relationship it has with Earth’s geology, atmosphere, and,
perhaps most importantly, its people.

introdUction 21
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“In the mIdst Of aLL dweLLs the sun. fOr whO cOuLd
set thIs LumInary In anOther Or better pLace In
thIs mOst gLOrIOus tempLe, than whence he can at
One and the same tIme brIghten the whOLe.”

—nIcOLaus cOpernIcus
001-224_30798.indd 24 7/8/13 7:14 PM
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 1
The
BIRTh Of
OuR SuN
Our Sun was born in the death throes of a
massive star. To understand how it happened,
we must trace the Sun’s genealogy all the way
back to the beginning. But even speaking
of “the beginning” is a bit misleading. The
prevailing theory is that sometime over 13.79
billion years ago, the universe was an infinitely
dense, infinitely hot, and inconceivably tiny
speck that (for reasons that remain a mystery)
started rapidly expanding in what is referred
to today as the Big Bang. No one knows how
long the speck had existed—or even if time
existed—prior to the Big Bang. The universe
might have been there forever, which makes
defining “the beginning” a bit like identifying
the start of a circle. Instead, we must choose a
point and talk about time relative to that point.
For our purposes, the Big Bang is as good
a starting point as any.
 the big bang
A fraction of a second—or .00000000000000000000
0000000000000000001 of a second, to be precise—
after the universe came into existence, it started
the antimatter expanding at greater than light speed in a process
physicists call cosmic inflation. That old adage that
Universe nothing can travel faster than light is not entirely true.
Under rare circumstances—the earliest moments
Had antimatter gotten the upper hand during of the Big Bang, for instance—the laws of physics
the earliest moments in time, no one knows become more like strongly worded suggestions.
what the universe would have looked like. To
help give us an idea, scientists placed a seven- This normally impossible feat did not go on for long.
ton particle detector called the Alpha Magnetic In fact, cosmic inflation happened so quickly that
Spectrometer (AMS-02) on the International describing it in fractions of a second would require
Space Station. They are already processing more zeros than could practicably be printed on
data that should give us a better picture of the this page. By the end, the universe and everything
antimatter universe we could have become. in it—including the seeds of life—expanded to
about the size of a
grapefruit. While that
might make the Big
in Big Bang sound a
bit exaggerated, keep
in mind that in a tiny
fraction of a second,
the universe expanded
from an infinitely small
speck to something
you could hold in your
hand. From infinitely
small to anything is
quite a jump.

Just after cosmic

inflation, the universe
consisted of an
extremely hot stew of
subatomic particles.
The stew was so hot
that the energy that
went into creating
anything other than
The AMS-02 installed atop the starboard energy resulted in pairs of matter and antimatter.
truss of the International Space Station Because matter and antimatter get along like the
Capulets and Montagues, the early universe was very
unstable. As soon as tiny bits of matter and antimatter
burst into creation, they collided with one another and
were destroyed.

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All of these fits and starts kept the early universe in a constantly shifting state until (for some unknown
reason) matter started winning some of the clashes. The result was that, after each collision, rather than
matter and antimatter destroying each other, a tiny excess of matter remained. If this sounds impossible
based on everything you know about physics, you’re right. It shouldn’t happen. But through a reaction called
baryogenesis, it did. As more and more collisions occurred, matter started to dominate antimatter, and the
universe as we know it began to take form.

Eventually (and, again, we are talking tiny fractions of a second), the universe slowed down and cooled.
Temperatures fell below the point where everything created came out as matter and antimatter pairs. From this
point on, the density of the universe was dominated by matter—protons, electrons, neutrinos, and all the other
bits that are the stuff of high-school physics classes.

After about 378,000 years, this cooling allowed protons and electrons to pair up, forming simple, neutrally
charged hydrogen atoms (one positively charged proton balanced by one negatively charged electron). This
point, an event known majestically as the Era of Recombination, marks the first time light appeared in the
universe. Prior to electron-proton pairing, light energy never got anywhere since it was scattered by constantly
colliding with all the free-floating particles in the chaos of the hot, early universe. Once light could travel without
being scattered, for the first time in . . . well . . . time, the universe burst into view.

Omega Centauri is a massive globular cluster that orbits the Milky Way galaxy. It boasts nearly 10 million stars, which range between
10 and 12 billion years old. In this detail, the yellow-white stars are adult stars, like our Sun. Orange indicates late-life stars that have
become cooler and larger, red indicates stars that have become red giants, and blue indicates stars that are fusing helium in their
superhot cores in a desperate attempt to extend their lives.

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the early Universe
in microwaves
The Era of Recombination is the earliest we can peer back into history and “see” anything in the form of
light still bouncing about. The light waves emitted at that time have since stretched to longer and longer
wavelengths, which are now so long they exist as microwaves. These microwaves are what NASA’s Wilkinson
Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) detected when it looked as far back as anything could and created an
anisotropy map of the early universe. Anisotropy is an intimidating word that simply means “not uniform.” It
refers to the interesting variations in temperature WMAP detected in the very first stages of the universe. In
2006, John Mather of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center and Professor George Smooth of the University of
California at Berkeley won the Nobel Prize for the insight these very small temperature variations provided to our
understanding of how the first galaxies formed.

Created from WMAP data, this image of the universe at just over 370,000
years old reveals tiny temperature fluctuations (shown as color differences)
that correspond to the seeds that grew into galaxies.

star nUrseries
Matter in the early universe was distributed almost, but not quite, uniformly. Thanks to the tiny variations
detected by WMAP, over a very long period of time, regions of slightly greater density exhibited slightly more
gravitational pull. As these regions attracted more and more matter, they became even denser, pulling in even
more matter and forming vast clouds known as nebulae.

Just as tiny variations in the density of the universe created nebulae, tiny variations in density within the first
nebulae made the giant dust clouds gravitationally unstable. At denser points within the nebulae, matter began
to clump together. When things clump together, their contraction causes the clumps to spin—a phenomenon
the astronauts observed while floating weightlessly about in their spacecraft. The faster something spins, the
more the matter toward the outside of the clump flattens out. This flattening effect is partly why most galaxies
take on a disk-like shape.

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 After about 100,000 years, all of this spinning, flattening, and contracting released enough energy that the
clumps of matter began to heat up, glow, and create pressure in the form of infrared radiation pushing back
against the force of gravity. When contracting matter reaches the point where it begins to emit infrared energy, it
is called a protostar.

Over another 100,000 years or so, these protostars continued to increase in density, attract more matter,
and grow even hotter. Eventually, the high temperature and massive pressure at their centers began forcing
hydrogen atoms to fuse together, sparking a fusion reaction. Astronomers refer to this reaction imprecisely as
hydrogen burning. When the fusion process begins, a star is born. A new star is sometimes referred to as a
nova, Latin for “new.”

With its thousands of sparkling

young stars, NGC 3603 is among
the most massive young star
clusters in the Milky Way Galaxy.

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when gravity
defeats fUsion

A star can turn supernova in one of two ways:

thermal runaway or core collapse. In thermal
runaway, a star accumulates so much mass that
gravity raises the temperature of its core high
enough to ignite a runaway nuclear reaction.
During normal fusion, hydrogen atoms fuse
together, forming helium. If temperatures increase
enough, the helium atoms fuse, forming carbon.
In stars with mass about the size of our Sun,
this is where the fusion cycle stops. Their core
temperatures will never become hot enough to
ignite carbon fusion, and they will continue to burn
through their remaining helium until they form a
white dwarf composed mostly of cold, inert carbon.

However, the cores of some stars with sufficient

mass can reach about 15 million degrees Celsius
(more than 27 million degrees Fahrenheit), the temperature at which carbon atoms fuse together.
Once the temperature inside a star reaches the point of carbon ignition, there is no stopping the
fusion cycle. Each successive fusion process converts more of the star’s remaining mass, while
producing temperatures hot enough to fuse together the resulting elements. Consequently, each
fusion conversion burns faster and faster.

It can take billions of years to fuse all of a star’s hydrogen into helium. It can take millions of years
to fuse its helium into carbon. Carbon fusion, on the other hand, can happen in hundreds of years,
a relative instant in cosmic terms. When carbon fuses together, it creates neon. Neon fusion can
convert a star’s entire carbon stocks within a matter of years. Next is oxygen fusion, which can take
as little as a couple of months.

The succession of cycles becomes so fast, with each cycle converting more mass while releasing less
energy, that at some point, the outward pressure of fusion loses its battle with the inward pressure
of gravity—and the balance of energy that held together the entire structure suddenly collapses.
All of the gravitational force that was once held in check comes crashing inward. Gravity crushes
subatomic particles together. This instant collapse of the atomic structure of every atom within the
star’s core releases a shock wave of energy that rips through the star, blasting most of its remaining
mass into space at supersonic speeds.

In thermal runaway, the outward pressure of successive fusion cycles grows weaker until it is
overcome by the force of gravity. But gravity sometimes can overcome outward pressure no matter
what type of fusion is happening in the star’s core. During core collapse, the core of very massive
stars may begin to exert so much gravitational pull that even the energy created through hydrogen
fusion cannot hold the structure together. Rather than wait for fusion to weaken, gravity skips straight
to crushing together subatomic particles in the core. The result is the same shockwave that bursts
the star from the inside out.

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Cassiopeia A is the remnant of a supernova that blew the star apart about 11,000 years ago.

going sUpernova
Once nuclear fusion is sparked, you can think of a star as existing in a constant tug-of-war. On one side is the
inward force of gravity, constantly trying to compress the star into a denser and denser mass. On the other side
is the outward force of fusion, creating pressure in the form of energy wanting to escape out into the universe.
As long as these two forces stay in relative balance, the star lives a long and sunny life, steadfastly bringing light
and warmth to its little corner of the universe. But if a star attracts enough mass, gravity will tug harder than
fusion, collapsing the star’s internal structure and sparking a supernova.

A supernova is among the most violent events in the universe. In a single flash, a supernova can release as
much energy as an average star will emit during its entire lifetime. This is an enormous amount of energy. The
atomic bombs that the United States dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II released energy
equivalent to about 15 kilotons of TNT. Since then, the U.S. has developed hydrogen bombs with maximum
yields of 25 megatons, nearly 2,000 times stronger. A single supernova releases the same amount of energy as
about 10 trillion of these 25-megaton nuclear bombs. Even in cosmic terms, supernovas are a big deal. When
they occur—about every 50 years in the Milky Way—they are, for a short time, the single brightest objects in the
entire galaxy.

the birth of oUr sUn 31

The Crab Nebula is the result of a supernova observed by astronomers in 1054. At its center is a pulsar, a neutron star that, despite
only being the size of a small town, has the mass of our Sun.

sUpernova nUcleosynthesis

Stars that spark supernovas as a result of thermal runaway can, for a short time, fuse carbon
into oxygen and then oxygen into silicon. For about a day, these stars fuse silicon into iron. But
silicon fusion is as far as it goes. Fusing iron or any heavier element absorbs more energy than it
produces. As a result, they can never be used to fuel a star.

During oxygen and silicon fusion, a massive star can also create sulfur, chlorine, argon,
scandium, and titanium. The enormous temperatures and pressures created during a
supernova also produce the essential nutrients sodium, potassium, and calcium. When famed
astronomer Carl Sagan proclaimed, “We’re made of star stuff,” he was right. You are alive and
reading these words because you have within you elements that were first created in a massive
supernova explosion that occurred billions of years ago. Stop for a second and think about that.
You are composed of stuff that can only be created in one of the most violent explosions in the
universe. Inspiring . . . and somewhat frightening.

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Fortunately, massive stars that are
destined for a violent end have an upside. hypernovas and
Most stars do not contain enough mass to
spark a supernova. Instead, they spend
gamma-ray bUrsts
their lives fusing hydrogen into helium
and helium into carbon until the fusion Recently, scientists have classified a specific
reaction in their core simply peters out. type of core collapse called a hypernova.
If the universe were made only of these Usually, a supernova is characterized by a
kinds of stars, space would contain star exploding as a result of thermal runaway
mostly (if not entirely) hydrogen, helium, or core collapse. But for stars with masses
and carbon, a very limited set of blocks about 15 times that of our Sun, the outward
on which to build the panoply of life. All burst of energy created by collapsing matter in
of the heavier elements in the universe the star’s core is insufficient to blow the outer
are created only by the intense heat and layers beyond the pull of gravity. Instead of
energy of a supernova in a process known exploding heavy elements into the universe,
as supernova nucleosynthesis. most of the star’s mass collapses in on itself,
forming a black hole. Only some of the mass is
Within a few seconds of a supernova able to escape as jets of high-energy particles
explosion, so much energy is released called gamma-ray bursts. These bursts are
that, for a brief time, the explosion the brightest electromagnetic events known to
generates temperatures much higher occur in the universe.
than those found in the core of any star.
These superhigh temperatures create all Because they are usually short-lived, focused
of the heavier elements from cobalt to beams, gamma-ray bursts are extremely
uranium, as well as their various isotopes. powerful. So far, astronomers have only
Isotopes are versions of the same element observed them (about one a day) emanating
that differ by the number of neutrons from distant galaxies. If a gamma-ray burst
in their nuclei. Some isotopes—called were to occur in the Milky Way and the
radioisotopes—decay at a steady rate as Earth was in its path, the results would be
they release excess neutrons over time. catastrophic. The planet would be bathed in so
much ultraviolet radiation that even the Earth’s
protective magnetosphere could not prevent
most organisms from being killed. In fact,
some scientists speculate that exposure to a
gamma-ray burst is precisely what triggered
the Ordovician-Silurian mass extinction event
some 450 million years ago.

A brilliant gamma-ray burst

jets out from the center of a
dying star in this computer
image of a hypernova.

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Also known as the Tarantula Nebula, 30 Doradus is a huge star-forming region in a galaxy called the Large Magellanic Cloud. In the
center, thousands of massive stars are blowing off material and producing intense radiation and powerful winds.

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oUr sUn’s violent
childhood
the iron-60
One particular radioisotope has helped scientists controversy
trace the origins of our Sun to a supernova explosion
over 4.6 billion years ago. In the final stages of a Recently, the supernova birth theory has come
massive star’s life, some of the iron formed during under attack by scientists at the University of
silicon fusion captures an extra neutron and becomes Chicago. In 2012, a team of researchers there
iron-60, a radioisotope with a half-life of 1.5 million examined the same meteorites as the Arizona
years. Iron-60 remains within the star’s core and State University team, but used different
only escapes when it blows itself apart during a methods to remove impurities that could cause
supernova explosion. errors in measuring radioisotope levels. After
removing impurities, the Chicago team found
Because iron-60 releases radiation at a steady rate much lower levels of iron-60 than the Arizona
over a long period of time, scientists can use it as a team had found, and no definitive evidence that
kind of clock, a marker of supernova activity early a supernova was involved in our Sun’s birth.
in our Sun’s formation. By knowing the approximate The clashing results have sparked renewed
age of the Sun, they can estimate how much of the speculation about our Sun’s early development
iron-60 that may have been created at the Sun’s birth and a heated debate that may take several years
would have decayed by today. Then, they can look for and much more data to resolve.
the presence of iron-60 with that amount of decay.

This is precisely what some scientists did in the

mid-2000s. Astronomers at Arizona State University
theorized that bits of the radioisotope blown out from
a supernova mixed with the gas and dust that were
forming our Sun’s protostar. But some of the material
from the supernova must have become rocks floating
about the solar system as it was forming. Eventually,
the scientists theorized, some of those rocks must
have fallen to Earth as meteors. So the scientists
examined some of the meteorites that dated back to
the birth of the solar system and found an abundance
of iron-60 that had decayed exactly the amount one
would expect if the protostar that created our Sun had
been exposed to a supernova blast.

Based on these findings, the astronomers suggest

that 4.6 billion years ago a massive star was born
inside a giant dust cloud. Excess heated gas created
a bubble that caused dust nearby to start forming a
cluster of smaller protostars, among them the one that
would become our Sun. When the massive star went An artist’s rendition of a supernova
supernova, it peppered the infant star cluster with blasting out gas and debris
iron-60 and ignited some of the protostars. According
to this theory, the supernova both birthed our Sun and
left its DNA to prove it.

the birth of oUr sUn 35

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fUsion: energy of combination
When the dust cluster that was our Sun’s protostar reached a critical temperature, it ignited a fusion reaction
that began converting hydrogen into helium. The moment this hydrogen fusion reaction began, our Sun
became a star! It will spend 90% of its lifetime performing this conversion.

Just how long a star like our Sun—what scientists refer to as a main-sequence or dwarf star—will take to
convert all of its hydrogen into helium depends on two factors: its mass and its luminosity. Its mass is a measure
of how much fuel it has to burn, while its luminosity is a measure of how fast it burns that fuel.

A typical hydrogen atom contains a single electron orbiting a nucleus containing a single proton. There are
eight known types of helium. But for the purpose of fusion within our Sun, we only need to understand three,
which vary based on the number of neutrons, if any, in their nuclei. Helium-2 is called a diproton because its
nucleus contains two protons but no neutrons. Helium-2 is unstable and tends to decay very quickly back into
hydrogen. Helium-3 has a nucleus containing two protons and a single neutron. It is extremely rare on Earth,
but thought to exist in large quantities in the surface layers of the Moon. Helium-4 has a nucleus with two
protons and two neutrons. It is the most common type of helium on Earth. It is the stuff that makes balloons
float and that kids love to inhale to make their voices sound high and squeaky.

The process our Sun (and other stars of its size)

presto change-o! uses to fuse hydrogen into helium is called a
proton-proton chain reaction. It is a multistep
You might be wondering how an atom with two process that took physicists decades to work
protons can suddenly turn into an atom containing one out. Here is a simplified version:
proton and one neutron. How can one of its protons
magically change into a neutron? It is rare, but possible. Step 1: Under immense temperature and
During beta-plus decay, a hydrogen atom ejects a pressure, two hydrogen nuclei (each with a
positron (antimatter’s version of an electron) and an single proton) are fused together, forming
electron neutrino. helium-2.

Inside every proton and neutron are quarks, particles Step 2: Most of the time, helium-2 is so
that have no known substructure. Quarks usually come unstable that it quickly decays right back into
in two types: up quarks or down quarks. The balance of hydrogen. But every now and then, helium-2
up and down quarks within a larger subatomic particle goes through a process called beta-plus decay,
will determine its charge. during which one of its protons changes into
a neutron by emitting two subatomic particles:
When a proton emits a positron, some of the up quarks a positron and a neutrino. Helium-2, with one
within it change to down quarks. This affects the charge proton and one neutron, is called deuterium, or
of the proton, turning it from positive to neutral. Since a heavy hydrogen.
positron is antimatter, it immediately collides with (and
annihilates) an electron. But the kinetic energy of both Step 3: The high temperature and pressure
subatomic particles is emitted as gamma rays. The can fuse deuterium (with its one proton and one
presence of these gamma rays is one way we know that neutron) together with another proton, forming
the positron and electron once existed at all. helium-3 (two protons with one neutron).

Step 4: Two helium-3 atoms (a total of four

U U U d protons and two neutrons) are fused, forming
a single helium-4 atom with a nucleus containing
d PROTON d NEUTRON two protons and two neutrons. The by-product
Quark structure Quark structure is two hydrogen atoms (each with a single
proton nucleus).

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 Every time it occurs, this process releases about 13 megaelectron volts of energy. Since it takes about 624
billion megaelectron volts each second to power a 100-watt light bulb, 13 might not sound like much. But
remember, that is the amount of energy generated by a process that consumes only four hydrogen atoms. And
the Sun has a lot of hydrogen atoms—enough, in fact, to burn nothing but hydrogen for another 5.4 billion
years. So even though each proton-proton fusion process releases relatively minute amounts of energy, so many
processes are occurring at the same time throughout the Sun’s enormous mass that the energy released at any
given time is also enormous.

hydrogen fUsion in the sUn

step 1 step 2 step 3 step 4

Hydrogen
(proton)

Helium-2

Hydrogen
(proton)
Beta Deuterium
-p
deca lus
y

Helium-3
Hydrogen
(proton)
Neutrino
Positron

Electron
Hydrogen Helium-4
(proton)

Gamma rays Helium-3

Hydrogen
(proton)

the birth of oUr sUn 37

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 two’s
company movement of a star. Finally, astronomers can infer
the existence of some binary systems from the
awkwardness of a star’s orbit. Some stars appear to
A surprising number of stars have partners and exist orbit around empty space, with no visible companion
in binary systems where the two stars orbit a central star. Through precise measurements of the star’s
point at which their gravitational pull on each other movements over a long period of time, astronomers
cancels out. Until recently, large, bright stars were can detect where an area of mass should be.
the most easily detected. As a result, astronomers These inferred star systems are known as
mistakenly estimated that well over 60% of all the astrometric binaries.
stars in our galaxy must exist in binary systems.
Improved technology has helped modern astronomers Like single-family homes, binary star systems usually
discover that the vast majority of stars in our galaxy take one of three forms: detached, semidetached, or
are cold, low-mass stars that have long run out of contact (the townhouses of binary star systems). Most
hydrogen fuel to burn. Only 3% to 4% of these types binary star systems are detached binaries, where the
of stars exist in binary systems. So, taking these gravitational pull of each star has no meaningful effect
stars into consideration, binary systems are the on the material of the other. For all practical purposes,
exception, not the rule. However, about half the the two stars live separate lives. In semidetached
stars of average mass and luminosity—like our binaries, one star’s gravitational pull dominates the
Sun—exist in binary systems. other’s to the point that the dominant star sucks
material from the surface of the subordinate star.
Binary star systems can be detected using three These systems can sometimes be detected because
different methods. Visual binaries, like the name the superheated gases stolen from the subordinate
implies, are systems that can be detected with the star form accretion disks, like the rings of Saturn,
naked eye or with a telescope. Many times, however, around the dominant star. In contact binaries, the
brighter stars obscure visual detection of their material in each star is affected by the gravitational
partners, making them appear as singles. These pull of the other. The stars share a common
binaries are usually detected through spectroscopy, atmosphere and, under some conditions, may
a process that reveals the composition and relative merge completely.

The greenish color indicates

jets of gas escaping from
“envelopes,” the collapsing
clumps of gas and dust
that form stars. In the
first two panels of the
top row, twin stars have
already formed inside
the envelopes. Scientists
believe the envelopes in
other panels will also form
binary stars.

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oUr sUn’s long-lost sibling?

If about half the stars the size and brightness of our Sun are binary systems, could our Sun have a companion
that we simply haven’t detected? Astronomers generally agree that our Sun was born among a cluster of stars
with similar masses, temperatures, and luminosities. Most of them dismiss the idea that we can identify any of
our Sun’s long-lost siblings some 4.3 billion years after they left their stellar nursery and parted ways. But that
hasn’t stopped some astronomers from looking. Despite extensive searching, however, using powerful infrared
telescopes capable of detecting red dwarfs as cool as 150 degrees Celsius (over 300 degrees Fahrenheit),
no astronomical survey has found a companion star to our Sun.

In this artist’s conception of a relatively young binary star system, the rocks and dust in
the inner belt around the near star may be forming an Earth-like planet.

Still, there are astronomers who believe that the existence of a companion to our Sun can be inferred—like
other astrometric binaries—from a number of astronomical anomalies. First, they point to the precession of
equinoxes. If you watched the sky every night for a year, you might notice that the position of the stars slowly
shifts across the sky. This movement is caused by the Earth’s rotation around the Sun and the appearance of
the stars from our shifting perspective. This is known as precession.

The precession of equinoxes is slightly more complex. Imagine that, instead of watching the sky every night, you
took a single snapshot of the sky at the same time on the same night every year for 20 years. What you would
notice is that, over time, the stars appear to shift backward. This is what’s called the precession of equinoxes, or
precessional movement. Astronomers have calculated that precessional movement follows a circular path that
should, in theory, take about 26,000 years to come full circle.

the birth of oUr sUn 39

 Precessional movement is thought to be caused by the slow wobble of Earth on its axis.
One rotation takes about 26,000 years.

Since you take your snapshot at the same time on the it has yet to be observed, astronomers believe that
same night every year, precisional movement cannot the outer edge of our solar system is surrounded by
be an illusion created by the Earth’s orbit around a dense field of icy rocks called the Oort Cloud. It is
the Sun. Something else must be causing the shift. thought to be the detritus of our solar system’s early
Sir Isaac Newton was the first to postulate that the formation, flung outward by the gravitational forces of
appearance of precessional movement is due to the the gas-giant planets—Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and
Earth slowly wobbling on a shifting axis. Picture a rod Neptune. Most astronomers believe that long-period
running straight through the Earth from top to bottom. comets originate in the Oort Cloud. Every so often,
As the Earth spins around the rod (axis), the rod the gravitational force of an object passing outside of
wobbles like a top, tracing out the shape of a cone at the Oort Cloud will disturb icy chunks within it and
both poles. It takes roughly 26,000 years for the Earth send them hurtling toward the inner solar system.
to wobble fully around this circle. Most astronomers Some of these objects are swallowed by the Sun. But
believe the wobble is the result of the interaction of sometimes their trajectory causes them to be caught
lunar and solar tidal forces, and that it explains the by the Sun’s gravitational force only enough to be
precession of equinoxes. slung around the star and shot back out into the solar
system. This gives the object—now a comet—an
But there’s a problem. If the slow wobble of Earth’s axis elongated orbit that it will follow for millions of years
causes the precession of equinoxes, it is a product of (assuming it doesn’t hit anything).
our shifting perspective and should affect everything we
view from Earth. Some astronomers argue that objects Some astronomers claim that the distribution of these
within our solar system do not appear to precess. Only long-period comets is not random. The comets appear
objects outside of the solar system do. If this is the to originate in a specific location in the Oort Cloud
case, then the Earth’s wobble cannot be the cause and are flung at similar trajectories into long-period
of precessional movement. Some astronomers argue orbits. For these astronomers, this is evidence of the
that the fact that objects inside the solar system do existence of something with a significant gravitational
not appear to precess is evidence of the existence force that disturbs the Oort Cloud on a cyclical basis.
of a companion star. If our Sun were part of a binary Many claim that a solar companion that orbited
system, the whole solar system would be rotating about every 26,000 years would explain this regular
around a common center of gravity with the companion distribution of long-period comets.
star. A binary model, they claim, is the perfect
explanation for why objects outside the solar system In the mid-1980s, two different teams of astronomers
precess, and objects within the solar system do not. published academic papers speculating that a hidden
companion star, likely a white dwarf, orbited beyond
Another argument used as evidence that our Sun has the Oort Cloud, approximately 1.5 light-years from
a companion involves long-period comets (comets the Sun. They called this hypothetical star Nemesis,
with orbits that can take thousands of years). Although or the Death Star, because its orbit was thought to

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 coincide with what appeared to be a cycle of mass impact the planet. He found that evidence for a
extinctions in Earth’s geological record. According to regular cycle of impacts was, in fact, a statistical error.
their calculations, galactic forces and the gravitational His analysis indicated that, since about 250 million
impact of passing stars would give Nemesis an years ago, the rate at which objects impact the Earth
irregular, sharply elliptical orbit that disturbed the Oort has actually increased. Whatever was causing the
Cloud in cycles matching the mass extinctions. increase, it certainly was not a Death Star lurking just
outside the solar system. Bailer-Jones’s paper poured
In 2011, Coryn Bailer-Jones, an astrophysicist at some cold water on the growing parade of Nemesis
the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, published a enthusiasts. Nevertheless, die-hard believers still
study in which he analyzed Earth’s craters, looking search for our Sun’s long-lost sibling—and prepare for
for patterns that might explain how often large objects the doomsday its discovery is thought to foretell.

where is
nemesis? point of
greatest
One reason we may not have found our separation
Sun’s long-lost sibling Nemesis (if it exists)
is that it may be a cool, dim red dwarf star
following a long elliptical orbit that

rs
ea
0y
brings it close to our solar
system only every 26,000 years. ,00
26

point of
closest
encoUnter
rs
ea

Sun
0y
,00

26

Nemesis

Center of mass

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 2
The
STRucTuRe
Of OuR SuN
As special as our Sun is to us, it is, by size and
brightness, a rather average star. Stars like the
Sun are known as G-type main-sequence stars.
Don’t be fooled, though. In star terms, average is
still quite massive. Our Sun, for example, makes
up 99.86% of all the mass in our solar system.
Its diameter is about 1.4 million kilometers
(roughly 870,000 miles). If that doesn’t sound too
impressive, picture this: if you lined up Earths,
surface to surface, it would take over 109 of them
to stretch the distance of the Sun’s diameter. Put
another way, even if you flew in the fastest plane
ever constructed—NASA’s unmanned X-43A,
which can reach speeds of Mach 9.6 (11,265
kilometers, or about 7,000 miles, per hour)—
it would still take you more than five days of
continuous flying to travel through the Sun from
one side to the other.
 elements
of oUr sUn

Helium
19.7%

Hydrogen
78.5%

Carbon
0.4%
About 78.5% of our Sun is made of hydrogen.
Most of the remaining mass is helium (19.7%),
the product of two hydrogen atoms fusing together. Iron
0.14% Oxygen
0.86%

Nitrogen, neon, sodium,

All the other elements in our Sun magnesium, aluminum,
make up less than 2% of its mass. silicon, phosphorus,
sulfur, potassium
0.54%

layers of oUr sUn

To talk about traveling from one “side” of our Sun to the other is a bit misleading. The Sun has no true surface,
nothing hard on which to land an airplane (even one as advanced as the X-43A). In fact, the matter that
makes up our Sun extends well beyond Earth, far out into the solar system. To be entirely accurate, therefore,
everything in our solar system, including all eight planets, exists “inside” the Sun. Nevertheless, to make
things easier, we can think of our Sun as having a central core surrounded by several layers. The inner layers
terminate in a kind of outer crust, which is surrounded by a sort of misty atmosphere.

I write “a kind of” and “a sort of” because most of the Sun is made of plasma, a superheated form of matter
that, like gas, does not retain a definite shape or volume that you can hold in your hands. On Earth, we think
of matter as existing in one of three states—solid, liquid, or gas. In reality, most matter in the universe exists
in a fourth state: plasma. When matter is superheated, its atoms go through a process known as ionization. In
simple terms, ionization occurs when so much energy is applied to atoms that their electrons become excited
enough to leap out of the atoms. Plasma is made up of free-floating, negatively charged, super-excited electrons

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A long, twisted strand of plasma suspended in the Sun’s corona

and the positively charged particles known as ions that remain after the electrons have leaped from the atom.
Because ions are capable of carrying an electrical charge, plasma tends to be a strong electrical conductor. It
reacts very easily to electromagnetic forces.

Our Sun is composed entirely of plasma, as are all stars. Most of the interplanetary space in our solar system
contains plasma; so does most interstellar space. Even black holes, those voids so powerful that light cannot
escape, excrete nothing but plasma.

Even though we speak of the Sun as having a surface and an atmosphere, the distinctions between the two are
not quite so pronounced. The surface is not solid. It is made of the same plasma as in the Sun’s atmosphere,
only slightly denser. The lower-density plasma in the Sun’s atmosphere makes its outer boundaries even more
imprecise. Although we tend to think of the solar system as a collection of discrete objects (the Sun, the planets,
the asteroids, and so on) separated by vast amounts of empty space, in reality the solar system is more like a
giant plasma sea in which all of these objects float. In truth, the Sun’s atmosphere extends to the outer edges
of the solar system, its density slowly dissipating along the way. Knowing this, we can start to think of everything
within our solar system as seamlessly connected and as existing, in a very real sense, inside the Sun.

the strUctUre of oUr sUn 45

the core

The radius of the Sun’s core is about 25% of the size of the entire Sun. The X-43A would still require over a
day’s flight to travel through it. But with an average temperature close to 15.7 million degrees Celsius (over 28
million degrees Fahrenheit), the high-tech plane would melt long before it completed the journey. The core is,
by far, the hottest part of the Sun. In fact, it is the hottest place in our entire solar system. Although it accounts
for only 10% of the Sun’s volume, it is the source of almost all the Sun’s heat.

Inside the core, gravity and pressure fuse hydrogen into helium, releasing vast amounts of energy that travel
outward through each successive layer of the Sun. We tend to think of the Sun as an incredibly powerful inferno
(and it is). But theoretical models predict that the power production density (the amount of energy produced by
each unit of the Sun’s volume) at the very center of our Sun is about the same as an active compost heap. The
Sun’s massive energy output is due not so much to its concentrated power as to its tremendous mass. Every
second, the Sun converts 600 million tons of hydrogen to helium. Each individual conversion generates a tiny
amount of energy. But there are a lot of individual conversions in 600 million tons every second!

Corona
e
on
ez
tiv
ec
nv

ne
Co

cli

e
ho

on
c

ez
Ta

tiv
dia
Ra

Sunspots
re
Co

Photosphere

layers of
the sUn

Chromosphere

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 The core is also the most compressed part of our Sun, with an average density of 150 grams per cubic
centimeter (86.7 ounces per cubic inch), about 150 times denser than water. This is also far denser than
most solid materials on Earth, about eight times the density of gold, for instance. Still, you could not stand on
the Sun’s core. The immense gravitational pressure exerted from the center of the Sun creates so much heat
that matter cannot take solid shape.

the radiative Zone

The radiative zone stretches from the outer core to about 70% of the radius of the Sun. This area is known
as the radiative zone because it is where energy is transported through radiation from the core outward.
Superheated ions of hydrogen and helium in the radiative zone emit photons, little packets of energy, which
travel a short distance until they are absorbed
by a neighboring ion. This cycle of emission and
reabsorption continues as the photons move in
random paths from the core outward, a process that three ways to
can take some photons millions of years. As plasma transfer energy
travels, it cools from around 15 million degrees Celsius
(more than 27 million degrees Fahrenheit) near the
core to about 1.5 million degrees Celsius (about In simple terms, energy can be transferred
2.7 million degrees Fahrenheit) at the outermost in three ways: conduction, radiation, and
boundary of the zone. The density of the radiative convection. Conduction transfers energy
zone drops as well, from about 20 grams per cubic between adjacent atoms that literally vibrate
centimeter (11.6 ounces per cubic inch) near the core against one another, creating a kind of domino
to only 0.2 grams per cubic centimeter (.12 ounce per effect. Conduction works best in solid materials,
cubic inch) at the outer edge. where atoms are closely packed together.

Radiation transfers energy by passing it in

tiny packets between atoms. As an atom
the convective Zone becomes excited, it releases a packet of
energy that travels until it hits a nearby atom.
The convective zone extends from the outer edge The neighboring atom absorbs the energy,
of the radiative zone to the photosphere, the visible becomes excited, and releases it again in a
surface of the Sun. As the name implies, the game of atomic hot potato.
convective zone is the area of the Sun’s interior where
the plasma is not dense enough to allow energy to Convection transfers energy through the flow
be transferred through radiation. As density (and of mass in liquid-like currents. As atoms slip
temperature) decreases, ions start holding on to and slide past one another, energy moves
absorbed photons, so nature turns to convection from “hotter” places to “cooler” places in an
instead. In this zone, thermal columns carry hot attempt to reach equilibrium. Since convection
material out to the surface, where it cools and then does not require atoms to be neatly packed
plunges downward again to absorb more energy from against one another, it is usually how energy is
the base of the zone. transferred through less dense materials.

In the tachocline, the relatively thin boundary between

the radiative and convective zones, the mechanism of
energy transfer transitions from radiation to convection. Scientists believe that the Sun’s magnetic
field is generated by the change in the flow rate of solar material that occurs in this transition area.

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the photosphere

Technically, the photosphere is the point at which

visible light (photons) from any star can finally
escape into space. Since our sight depends on
detecting photons that have traveled from the Sun,
the photosphere is as far “into” the Sun as we can
see with the naked eye (if it were even possible to
look directly at the Sun). Because photons cannot
escape until they reach the photosphere, even This image taken by the solar optical telescope on NASA’s Hinode
if we could see deeper into the Sun, everything satellite shows a greatly magnified section of the photosphere. The
below the photosphere would appear pitch-black. light areas are granules, where hot plasma is rising up from below;
the dark areas show where cooler plasma is sinking back down.
Because it is the innermost layer that can be seen,
the photosphere is considered the visible “surface”
of the Sun. It is about 300 kilometers (about 186 miles) thick, though its thickness varies considerably in
places since it is continuously changing. The photosphere is composed of millions of granules, the very tops
of convection cells where plasma at an average temperature over 6,000 degrees Celsius (10,832 degrees
Fahrenheit) has risen through the convection zone and peeked out just far enough to spit visible light into the
universe. After the granules release this energy, the plasma cools and falls back inward again. Each granule is
about 1,000 kilometers (over 620 miles) in diameter, and each lasts about 20 minutes. The continuous coming
and going of these granules gives the photosphere a constantly shifting turbulence, like the bubbling surface of
a boiling stew.

the chromosphere
Just above the photosphere lies the chromosphere, the lowest layer of what is considered the Sun’s
atmosphere. If the photosphere is the surface of a boiling stew, the chromosphere is where the stew spits
and splatters. It is where solar prominences (filaments of superheated plasma) anchored in the photosphere
whip about.

The chromosphere is nearly 2,000 kilometers (about 1,243 miles) thick. Its density, however, is far less
than the photosphere and just a tad thicker than Earth’s atmosphere. In fact, under normal conditions the
chromosphere is completely invisible. During a total solar eclipse, however, the chromosphere is revealed as
a thin red or pink ring around the Sun’s surface. Temperatures in the chromosphere vary widely, growing from
nearly 6,000 degrees Celsius (10,832 degrees Fahrenheit) at its inner boundary to almost 20,000 degrees
Celsius (more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit) at its outer edge.

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 This image of the Sun uses different wavelengths to show temperature
variations. At the far left is the photosphere at about 6,000 degrees
Celsius (10,832 degrees Fahrenheit). Next comes a transition area
between the chromosphere and the corona, where temperatures are
about 1 million degrees Celsius (1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit). The
third section is a composite of three wavelengths showing temperatures
up to 2 million degrees Celsius (3.6 million degrees Fahrenheit). At right
is an overlay showing magnetic field lines connecting sunspots.

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how hot is oUr sUn?

Because of the interaction of gravitational and magnetic forces within the Sun, its temperature
varies in some surprising ways. In fact, because its temperature is so variable, the more accurate
question is how hot is the hottest part of the Sun? The Sun’s core is about 15.7 million degrees
Celsius (over 28 million degrees Fahrenheit). It is the hottest part of the Sun, by a lot. Solar
material cools as it moves outward through the consecutive layers of the Sun. Curiously, however,
temperatures soar again as solar material expands out through the lower layers of the Sun’s
atmosphere. At the chromosphere’s inner boundary, the average temperature is only about 6,000
degrees Celsius (10,832 degrees Fahrenheit). But temperatures in the corona can reach as high as
10 million degrees Celsius (more than 18 million degrees Fahrenheit).

For years the fact that temperatures rose within the Sun’s atmosphere baffled scientists. Recently,
however, NASA’s High-Resolution Coronal Imager (a small telescopic camera the agency launched
on a 10-minute flight just above the Earth’s atmosphere) revealed bundles of magnetically charged
plasma twisting through the corona in massive braids. NASA scientists speculate that the bending
and twisting of these magnetic braids interacts with magnetic field lines along the surface of the
Sun. The field lines are constantly trying to straighten the magnetic braids in a process known as
magnetic reconnection, which can generate enormous amounts of energy. Scientists think the extra
energy released during magnetic reconnection may be heating the Sun’s atmosphere and could
account for the tremendous temperature difference between the Sun’s surface and its corona.

NASA’s High-Resolution Coronal Imager captured this image of our

Sun’s corona, revealing braided plasma (upper left), on January 21, 2013.

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the corona

We can imagine the corona as the outer layer of the Sun’s atmosphere, extending millions of kilometers from
the Sun’s surface. It is the wispy halo visible around the Sun during a solar eclipse. It is not always evenly
distributed around the Sun. Most of the actual material that makes up the corona is concentrated close to the
chromosphere in the form of loops and arches of magnetically charged plasma. During periods of low solar
activity, coronal material tends to accumulate near the Sun’s equator, leaving the poles exposed. During active
periods, the corona is distributed more evenly, covering the Sun from its equator to its poles.

The corona can reach temperatures of nearly 10 million degrees Celsius (over 18 million degrees Fahrenheit),
far hotter than the surface of the Sun. This fact was discovered in the mid-twentieth century when scientists
found evidence of ionized iron (which can only be formed at superhigh temperatures) in the spectral signature
of light emanating from the corona.

The corona is easily seen in this image of our active Sun from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.

the strUctUre of oUr sUn 51

discovering the solar wind

A British astronomer named Arthur Eddington first suggested the existence of what we now call the solar wind
(though he never referred to it as a “wind” per se). Although Eddington presented his theory to the Royal
Astronomical Institute in 1911, few astronomers took notice. In the mid-1950s, Eugene Parker, an American
astrophysicist, observed that the tails of comets always pointed away from the Sun. He speculated that this
was due to a wind of charged particles blowing outward from the Sun. Parker’s hypothesis was met with
tremendous opposition, so much, in fact, that his first paper suggesting the phenomenon was rejected for the
prestigious Astrophysical Journal. Finally, as scientists accumulated more and more evidence supporting the
existence of a solar wind, Parker’s theories gained widespread acceptance, and he was elected to the National
Academy of Sciences in 1967.

The fast solar wind originates from coronal holes, like the one visible as a large dark area near the top center of the Sun in this image.
Coronal holes are associated with open magnetic field lines and are often found at the Sun’s poles.

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 Heliosheath
Interstellar
space

Termination shock

Bow shock

Heliosphere
solar wind
and the
heliosphere
Heliopause

the solar wind

Every hour, 4 to 6 billion tons of charged particles in an average velocity of about 400 kilometers (almost
the Sun absorb so much energy that they escape its 250 miles) per second. It is nearly twice as hot and
gravitational pull and flow outward from the corona twice as dense as the fast solar wind. The slow solar
in a low-density emission known as the solar wind. wind is made of particles that resemble the elemental
This continuous flow of particles is made up mostly of composition of plasma from the Sun’s corona (with a
negatively charged electrons, some positively charged higher concentration of particles from heavier elements)
protons, and an unknown number of neutrally charged and has an average temperature of 1.5 million degrees
(or not charged at all) neutrinos. Much like wind Celsius (over 2.7 million degrees Fahrenheit).
on Earth, the solar wind constantly varies in speed,
temperature, and density. This variability is largely due The solar wind carries the Sun’s charged particles
to the mix and total number of the particles within it. and magnetic field outward in all directions, forming
the heliosphere. The wind slows down abruptly as it
Most scientists refer to the solar wind, but actually there meets interstellar space, a boundary known as the
are two. The fast solar wind originates from magnetically termination shock. Eventually, the Sun’s magnetic
active areas near the Sun’s poles and has an average field presses against the interstellar medium and
velocity of about 750 kilometers (466 miles) per second. bends back, forming the heliosheath, a sort of tear-
It is made of particles that resemble the elemental shaped bubble around the solar system with the
composition of plasma from the Sun’s photosphere and trailing edge pointed in the direction opposite the Sun’s
has an average temperature of about 800,000 degrees path as it moves around the galaxy. Scientists now
Celsius (over 1.4 million degrees Fahrenheit). think the compression of the Sun’s magnetic field at the
leading edge (the bow shock) forms immense bubbles
The slow solar wind originates from magnetically active that are swept back along an area known as
regions on the Sun’s surface near its equator and has the heliopause.

the strUctUre of oUr sUn 53

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the sUn’s rotation
The Italian astronomer and inventor Galileo Galilei was the first to realize that the movement of spots on the
surface of the Sun was caused by its rotation. In 1613, he made a series of sketches of sunspots on three
consecutive days and realized that they had steadily moved from left to right across the face of the Sun. In
the 1860s, the British astronomer Richard Carrington went even further and used the movement of sunspots
to calculate the rate of the Sun’s rotation. Surprisingly, Carrington’s observations showed that spots near the
equator of the Sun revolved every 25 days, while spots about halfway toward the poles revolved every 28
days. What accounts for the difference is a phenomenon known as differential rotation. In fact, differential
rotation accounts not only for the difference in the speed of sunspots, but for their very existence. It turns
out that differential rotation may be the single most important cause of the Sun’s powerful and tempestuous
magnetic field.

An illustrated plate from a 1613 book by Galileo shows the

movement of sunspots across the surface of the Sun.

This image from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captures

a single sunspot dividing into two over the course of about
48 hours. Each sunspot is about the size of Earth.

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differential rotation sidereal
vs . synodic
Imagine spinning a perfectly spherical snow globe and rotation
observing what happens to the bits of white “snow” within it.
If you watch closely, you’ll notice a relationship between the Since Richard Carrington first
location of a piece of snow inside the globe and how fast it is calculated the Sun’s rotation rate,
rotating. The snow near the equator rotates briskly, while snow scientists have determined that the
near the poles hardly rotates at all. What you are witnessing actual rotation period at the Sun’s
is differential rotation, the phenomenon of different parts of a equator (sidereal rotation) is 24.47
spinning object rotating at different rates depending on their days, not the 26.24 days that it
latitudinal position. appears to be from Earth-based
telescopes (synodic rotation). The
Understanding what causes the Sun’s differential rotation difference is an illusion created
is a little more of a challenge. With a solid sphere, it is easy by the Earth’s movement. When
to understand that matter at the equator rotates faster than viewing the Sun from the Earth,
matter near the poles. The circumference of the equator is astronomers must account for the
greater than the circumference of a line of latitude near a pole. planet’s orbit around the Sun. The
Since the sphere is solid, all the matter has to complete the change in viewing position, it turns
circumference at the same time. So something at the equator out, adds an extra 1.77 days to the
must travel faster than something near the poles. observed rotation period.

But what happens in a fluid sphere, where matter is not

connected in a way that requires it to all to rotate together?
If a fluid sphere allows different parts to rotate at different
rates, what determines the rotation rate for any given part?
The answer involves a basic law of mechanics called the
conservation of angular momentum.

N N N

Magnetic
field lines

S S S

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 angUlar momentUm

When force is applied to spin a fluid object, every bit In solid objects, it is easy to see that this is precisely
of matter that makes up the object is given angular what happens. Take, for example, a spinning figure
momentum, the product of how fast matter in a skater. As she moves her arms closer to her body
particular location is rotating around a central axis (the axis), she spins faster. But let’s examine why.
and how much matter (mass) is in that location. We know that matter farther away from a spinning
The critical point to understand is that angular axis (the equator) has to travel faster to cover a larger
momentum (a force) is related to two factors: circumference in the same time as matter closer to
rotation rate and mass. the axis (the poles). To do so, it must use a larger
amount of force.
It may be easier to understand the relationship
between these factors when we write the definition But how much more? The answer depends on how
as an equation: much matter has to make the faster trip. The more
matter has to move, the more force is required. Imagine
Angular Momentum = Rotation Rate x Mass. our skater stretching her arms out again. We expect
that her spinning will slow. Now imagine we (deftly)
handed her a set of dumbbells as she continued her
spin. We know that she will spin even slower (probably
much slower). Thanks to the conservation of angular
momentum, we now know why.

When we handed the skater dumbbells, we increased

the amount of mass that had to be moved over a longer
distance. That requires force. Conservation of angular
momentum tells us that the amount of force we can
apply to spinning the entire object is limited. If more
force is consumed moving mass over a longer distance,
then less is available to apply to the rate of rotation.
Without more force, the rate of rotation must slow.

In solid objects, even if you can move matter around

(like stretching out our skater’s arms), generally you
can’t change the period of rotation. Because all the
matter is tightly connected, it all must complete the
entire rotation in the same time. In fact, the constant
Conservation of angular momentum simply means period of rotation is why, in a solid object, if you
that, for our purposes, we assume that the total move matter to a location that has a larger rotational
amount of force that is spinning the object remains circumference, the spin of the object must slow.
constant. No matter how we move matter within the You don’t have the option of allowing some matter to
object, the total amount of angular momentum can’t make the rotation at one time while the rest completes
change. If, therefore, we were to move some mass it at another.
from the outer edge of a spinning object to somewhere
close to the center, the entire object should spin Fluids, however, are not so limiting. Matter within fluid
faster. Since less force is needed to move mass at the spinning objects can have different rotation periods.
outer edge faster than mass inward toward the axis (to As a result, as matter within sloshes around, the
make the full rotation in the same time), more force is object’s total angular momentum can be distributed
available to move all the matter faster. Since the total in all sorts of crazy ways. This uneven distribution of
force has to stay within the object, it can’t be used for force ends up being the cause of much of the Sun’s
anything else. magnetism (as well as some of its strangest features).

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differential rotation
in the sUn’s interior
the sUn’s
For a long time scientists assumed that the differential rotation observed wobble
on the Sun’s surface extended into the inner layers of the Sun. However,
as instruments for observing the Sun have grown in sophistication, they A little secret you are unlikely
have allowed scientists to study wave oscillations inside the Sun. This to find in any simple science
process, known as helioseismology, revealed a surprising fact about textbook is that the Sun is not,
the Sun’s internal structure. From the tachocline outward, solar plasma in fact, at the center of our solar
behaves much like a fluid, exhibiting differential rotation. From the system. The truth is that the
tachocline inward (the radiative zone through the core), solar material planets do not, strictly speaking,
behaves more like a solid, rotating at a constant rate. revolve around the Sun, either.
Rather, each planet revolves
You might expect that the fluid dynamics of the Sun would result in a around a center of mass, a
slower rotation period for matter at the equator than matter at the poles. different point in space where
After all, if less force is required to rotate matter near the poles (and there its gravitational pull is equal
is less matter there anyway), shouldn’t the force conserved increase the to the Sun’s gravitational pull.
rotation rate of matter at the poles? Instead, just the opposite is the case. For the smaller planets, this
Matter at the equator rotates faster. point is somewhere within the
Sun’s surface, but outside its
While fluids can conserve force with differential rotation, the angular center. For the larger planets,
momentum of fluid spinning objects is more easily affected by the internal like Jupiter (at more than 300
movement of mass. In the Sun, convection currents are constantly moving times the mass of the Earth), the
matter outward from the core. Scientists believe the movement of this balancing point lies outside the
mass redistributes angular momentum toward the outer edges of the Sun altogether. Jupiter literally
Sun, though not evenly. As matter travels outward, it also moves through revolves around a point near
layers of the Sun that are rotating at different rates. The combination of the Sun, not within the Sun.
these vectors generates its own force, called the Coriolis effect, which may The combination of all of these
account for why matter at the Sun’s equator appears to rotate faster than different rotation points causes
matter near its poles. the Sun to wobble in crazy (but,
thankfully, tiny) ways.
 chasing oUr sUn

As Earth rotates around the Sun every 365 (or so) days, it also follows the Sun as it speeds around the galaxy
at nearly 232 kilometers (144 miles) per second. Even at this breakneck pace, it takes 240 million years for the
Sun (and the rest of the solar system) to circle the Milky Way.

Just as Earth follows the Sun around the Milky Way, the Sun follows the Milky Way on its travels through
intergalactic space. No one can say for sure at what speed the Sun (and the rest of us) are dragged along with
the galaxy because speed is relative and, at the scale of intergalactic travel, there is really no common reference
point. As much as scientists are learning about our universe, they still cannot identify its center or its edges—or,
for that matter, whether it has either.

Our Sun

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the sUn’s magnetism
Understanding the Sun’s magnetism is the key to understanding almost all solar activity. A magnetic field is
created by the flow of electrically charged particles, and inside our Sun there are a lot of electrically charged
particles. Moreover, they are flowing in all sorts of directions, responding to competing forces pushing and
pulling them. Scientists are still working out the exact cause (and effects) of the Sun’s magnetic field, but new
data from NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) mission is giving scientists a much clearer idea
of how the process works.

Scientists now think that the Sun’s magnetic field originates in the tachocline, the boundary between the
Sun’s radiative and convective zones. Plasma from the tachocline outward acts much like a fluid, exhibiting
differential rotation as the Sun spins. Plasma from the tachocline inward acts more like a solid, rotating at a
constant rate. The change in the physical characteristics of the plasma at this boundary makes the tachocline
much like the painted line on a highway separating the passing lane from the traveling lane. The difference in
velocity between the charged particles in one lane and the charged particles in the other creates a shearing
force and generates electromagnetism.

the history of magnetism

For thousands of years, humans have known about magnetism. The Greek philosopher and
mathematician Aristotle recorded discussions about magnetism by Thales of Miletus, a philosopher from
Asia Minor who lived from 624 to 546 BCE. The Indian surgeon Sushruta, who practiced during the fifth
century BCE, is known to have used magnets for medical purposes. In a Chinese book dating from the
fourth century BCE, the anonymous author refers to the magnetic properties of lodestone (which we
know today as magnetite).

Still, little was known about what caused

magnetism. In 1600, William Gilbert, a British
physicist and natural philosopher, published
a book entitled De Magnete, Magneticisque
Corporibus, et de Magno Magnete Tellure (On
the Magnet and Magnetic Bodies and on the
Great Earth Magnet) in which he speculated
that the Earth itself was a magnet. Of course
Gilbert was correct, but he didn’t know why.

It took an accident by a Danish physicist,

Hans Christian Ørsted, before anyone finally
understood that there was a relationship between
electricity and magnetism. During a lecture in
1820, Ørsted noticed that a compass needle
reacted every time he switched a battery on
and off. This chance discovery caused him to
experiment with electrical and magnetic charges,
and three months later, he published the first A diagram illustrating the behavior of a magnet at
paper to posit that an electric current produces a different points around Earth’s North Pole from William
magnetic field as it flows through a wire. Gilbert’s seventeenth-century book on magnetism

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Magnetic flux (one measure of the quantity of magnetism) is the product of forces acting upon moving particles,
trying to move them in different directions called vectors. As charged particles rotate around the Sun’s axis,
they are also moving outward, traveling from the core to the surface. As they flow subject to competing vectors
(particularly at the tachocline), the
particles generate greater magnetic flux.

NASA scientists speculate that the

magnetic field generated at the
tachocline forms “tubes of force” that
travel in field lines from the tachocline
outward. Since different parts of the
Sun are rotating at different rates,
the magnetic field lines get wrapped
and twisted in a chaotic mess, like a
giant bowl of (very) hot spaghetti. This
constant winding and bending subjects
the charged particles to forces trying
to push and pull them through more
vectors, generating even stronger
magnetism.

In 2017, NASA will launch the Solar

Orbiter (SolO), a spacecraft designed to
take precise measurements of the Sun’s
magnetic properties. Scientists hope the
data from SolO will unlock the mystery
of our Sun’s magnetic field and provide A map of the magnetic field lines emanating from the Sun is superimposed on
concrete answers about electromagnetic an extreme ultraviolet image from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory.
forces deep within the star.

Following a solar flare, graceful magnetic

loops of superheated plasma, each the
size of several Earths, arc above the
Sun’s surface.

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 Earth to scale

On July 19, 2012, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a dazzling display known as coronal rain. After an eruption, hot plasma
in the corona cooled and condensed, outlining the magnetic field lines as it slowly fell back to the Sun’s surface.

In late September 2012, a series of magnetically active regions appeared to dance the conga across the surface of the Sun.

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 sUnspots

The combination of the Sun’s rotation and convection currents

within the Sun twists subsurface magnetic field lines, increasing
the intensity of the magnetic force following these lines.
Sometimes the force grows so intense that it punches through
the photosphere, momentarily blocking the normal flow of
plasma through convection cells. Where this happens, surface
temperatures suddenly cool relative to surrounding areas.
The cooler areas appear as dark spots, known as sunspots,
on the surface of the Sun.

Typically, sunspots occur in pairs with opposite magnetic polarities.

The “leading” sunspot travels in the direction of the Sun’s rotation
ahead of the “trailing” sunspot. If you picture a giant horseshoe
magnet just below the surface of the Sun, the sunspot pairs would
correspond to the poles of the magnet. One sunspot exhibits a
positive polarity. The other exhibits a negative polarity.

above: Over three days in mid-March 2013, the Sun doubled its number of
sunspot groups. The bottom image, taken at the same time, shows the Sun’s
magnetic field, with the lightest and darkest areas indicating the strongest
magnetic forces.

right: A group of sunspots can be seen as bright areas near the horizon. The
temperature of the glowing gases flowing around the sunspots is over 1 million
degrees Celsius (2.8 million degrees Fahrenheit).

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 The configuration of polarities for sunspots appearing in the same hemisphere at any particular instant is always
the same. That is, if the leading sunspot has the positive polarity, then the leading sunspot in all pairs that appear
in the same hemisphere will be positive. Likewise, the configuration of sunspot polarity is always the opposite of
the pole in its hemisphere. Leading sunspots in the Sun’s northern hemisphere, for example, will have a south-
oriented polarity, and the leading sunspots in its southern hemisphere will have a north-oriented polarity.

Generally, sunspots range in size between 1,500

kilometers (932 miles) and 50,000 kilometers
(31,068 miles) in diameter. But most sunspots
change size and shape during their lifetimes. Some
sunspots can grow as large as 80,000 kilometers
(about 50,000 miles) in diameter, large enough
to swallow the planet Saturn with room to spare.
The largest sunspots are visible without the aid of
a telescope, though you would not be able to see
them with the naked eye (and should never try).

Sunspots generally last anywhere from 1 to 100

days. When groups of sunspots appear, they
typically stick around for about 50 days. Thanks to
the tedious recording of sunspots by astronomers
over several centuries, we have meticulous records
of sunspot activity. These records show that
sunspots follow a clear 22-year cycle. The number
of sunspots grows over 11 years (known as solar
On December 14, 2006, the Hinode Solar Optical Telescope maximum). Then, the numbers diminish over 11
observed active sunspots during a solar flare. The granules of years (known as solar minimum).
the photosphere are easily seen.

The sunspots that were the source

of an X1.2-class solar flare on
May 15, 2013, are clearly visible
in this image from NASA’s Solar
Dynamics Observatory.

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Ever since scientists have
been able to accurately
record solar radiation,
measurements indicate that
the number of sunspots
correlate to the intensity of
solar radiation. However,
sunspots themselves have
little impact on the Sun’s
radiation output. The number
of sunspots also correlates
to the amount of other solar
activity. When more sunspots
appear, so do more solar
flares and more coronal mass
ejections. Because of this
correlation, sunspot activity
is often used to predict when
solar storms are likely to
disrupt conditions on Earth or
in near-Earth space.

above, right: In this layered image

of the Sun, you can peer down
through the atmosphere to see the
correlation of sunspots to brighter
active regions above the surface.

right: A pair of active regions

of the Sun appear in different
wavelengths, showing plasma at
cooler (left) and hotter (center)
temperatures as well as the
sunspots (right) responsible for
the activity.

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 who discovered
sUnspots?
telescopic
Who first “discovered” sunspots is a matter of some
projection controversy. The Chinese astronomer Gan De was the
first to record their existence in his star catalogue written
The advent of the telescope made observation in 364 BCE. Not long afterward, the Greek astrologer
of sunspots much easier by using a technique Theophrastus mentioned sunspots in his writings on
called telescopic projection. If you look directly the nature of the heavens. In his book Vita Karoli Magni
at the Sun with the naked eye, it will not take (The Life of Charlemagne), the Frankish scholar Einhard
long for it to permanently blind you. But if you described a large sunspot appearing just before the
look directly at it through a telescope, it will emperor’s death in CE 814.
blind you almost instantaneously. Early users
of the telescope must have figured this out Depending upon whom you ask, the first person to
pretty quickly, because they learned to project record sunspots observed through a telescope was
the image of the Sun onto a flat surface. This the Dutch astronomer Johannes Fabricius, the Italian
technique, first invented by Benedetto Castelli, astronomer Galileo Galilei, the British astronomer
a pupil of Galileo, made even the smallest Thomas Harriot, or the German astronomer Christoph
sunspots apparent to astronomers. Scheiner. In 1612, Scheiner published Tres Epistolae
Maculis Solaribus Scriptae ad Marcum Welserum (Three
Letters on Solar Spots Written to Marc Welser), a series
of letters to a well-known patron of science that claimed
Scheiner had undertaken a serious study of sunspots
as early as October 1611. As a Jesuit priest, Scheiner
wanted to preserve the perfection of the Sun as one of
God’s remarkable creations, so he incorrectly identified
the spots as moons of the Sun traveling between it and
the Earth.

Records indicate that Galileo may have been

showing sunspots to astronomers in Rome during
the spring of 1611. Sometime the following winter,
Welser sent Galileo a copy of Scheiner’s letters and
invited Galileo to comment on them. At the time,
Galileo was too ill to launch into a serious study to
refute Scheiner’s hypothesis.

In April 1612, however, Galileo regained his strength and

embarked on a study of sunspots with the help of his
student, Benedetto Castelli. Galileo concluded that the
This illustration from a 1630 book by astronomer spots were either on the surface of the Sun or cloudlike
Christoph Scheiner gives instructions for building and structures in its atmosphere.
mounting a telescope to safely observe sunspots.

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 the camera obscUra
Though Benedetto Castelli can claim credit for inventing
telescopic projection, the Dutch astronomer Johannes
Fabricius tracked sunspots just as accurately using
a device known as the camera obscura (Latin for
“darkened room”). A camera obscura is a closed box
or room with a small hole in one side. As light passes
through the hole, it projects an upside-down but
otherwise accurate image on the opposite inside surface
of the box or room.

A photo of sunspots taken in summer 2012 by NASA’s No one knows who

Solar Dynamics Observatory invented the device,
but Aristotle is known
to have used a camera
Soon afterward, Galileo sent a letter to obscura in the fourth
Welser reporting his findings and refuting century BCE to
Scheiner’s claim that the spots were observe the crescent
moons. What ensued was a flurry of letters of the partially eclipsed
back and forth between Scheiner and Sun. The first person
Galileo (with poor Welser in the middle). to ever mention a
Eventually, the rivalry between the two took camera obscura
on a life of its own. Galileo complained in writing was the
about others trying to steal credit for his Chinese philosopher
sunspot discoveries. Assuming the Italian Mozi, who lived in the
was referring to him, Scheiner declared late fifth century BCE.
Galileo his sworn enemy. The thirteenth-century
British philosopher
While the two were fighting it out, and Franciscan
apparently neither noticed that Johannes friar Roger Bacon,
Fabricius and his father, David, had however, was the first This illustration, published in a 1647
published a description of sunspots to describe the use of book by the astronomer Johannes
that the two had observed through a one to safely view a Hevelius, shows a telescope set
telescope David brought back from Leiden solar eclipse. up in a camera obscura in order to
University in early 1611. But, a few observe the Sun.
months before either Fabricius or Galileo Over time, astronomers
claim to have first observed sunspots, the discovered that the
British astronomer and mathematician smaller they made the hole, the clearer (but dimmer) the
Thomas Harriot recorded his observations projected image appeared. Thus, by using a telescope
of sunspots in December 1610 in combined with a camera obscura that had just the
manuscripts that were not released until right-size hole, Fabricius was able to trace projections
after his death in 1621. Though today of sunspots onto paper to create remarkably accurate
most books credit Fabricius as the first representations.
to observe sunspots telescopically, it was
Harriot who—even according to Fabricius
and Galileo’s claimed dates—should be
credited as the first.

the strUctUre of oUr sUn 67

This image from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory was processed to enhance the visible structures. The loops represent plasma held
in place by magnetic fields. Sunspots are at the center of the blue areas.

flipping oUt: heliomagnetic reversal

Just like the Earth, the Sun has a north pole and a south pole. But, in the Sun’s case, identifying which is which
may be difficult. The Sun’s magnetic polarity flips about every 11 years, corresponding with a solar cycle that
appears to be the result of the polarity of sunspots. The polarity configuration of sunspots is always opposite the
polarity of the hemisphere in which they appear. Leading sunspots in the Sun’s northern hemisphere always
have a south-oriented polarity. Leading sunspots in the Sun’s southern hemisphere always have a north-
oriented polarity.

QUadrUpolarity?
When the Sun went through heliomagnetic reversal in early 2012, some scientists found unexpected
magnetic changes. Rather than change from positive to negative polarity, the south pole appeared to be
maintaining its positive polarity. This bizarre phenomenon led to speculation that, rather than flip, the
unusual flow of magnetic material would form four poles, with two new poles near the Sun’s equator.
The north and south poles were expected to be positively charged, while the equatorial poles were
expected to be negatively charged. Although there is no evidence of this quadrupolarity yet, one team
of Japanese researchers believe that a quadrupolar pattern appeared during a heliomagentic reversal in
the late seventeenth century and corresponded to the coldest part of a miniature ice age known as the
Maunder Minimum.

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This image of the Sun was taken in the 171 wavelength by the Advanced Imaging Assembly (AIA) in NASA’s Solar Dynamics
Observatory on April 4, 2012. Magnetic field lines have been added to map the connections between active areas.

As more sunspots appear and expand, the polarity of the leading sunspots in a hemisphere will weaken the
polarity of the pole in that hemisphere. For example, south-oriented sunspots will weaken the polarity of the
Sun’s north pole. Eventually, the polarity of the leading sunspots in a hemisphere will establish dominance,
causing the Sun’s poles to flip in a phenomenon known as heliomagnetic reversal.

The solar wind extends the Sun’s magnetic field far out into the solar system. As a result, heliomagnetic reversal
affects material far away from the Sun. But due to the distance involved and the speed of charged particles that
make up the wind, it can take years for the effects of the Sun’s “flip out” to reach all the way to the outer edges
of the solar system.

the strUctUre of oUr sUn 69

solar flares

A solar flare is a brilliant flash on the Sun’s surface

associated with a sudden release of an enormous
burst of electromagnetic radiation, energy
equivalent to as much as 160 billion megatons
of TNT. Although they release radiation across
all wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum,
most solar flares are spread over frequencies
outside the range of visible light. As a result, even
while many solar flares do not create a flash that
can be seen with the naked eye, they can still
release huge amounts of energy in the form of
ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, or gamma rays.

Although scientists understand the basics of

solar flares, there continues to be much debate
about the details. Scientists agree that solar flares
occur when electromagnetic fields within the Sun
grow in intensity and attempt to escape the Sun’s
gravity. Most of the time, the electromagnetic
forces bubble up through the Sun’s surface as
great loops of magnetic energy. Plasma (made of
superheated, charged particles) follows the same
paths as magnetic energy, forming loops of solar
material known as solar prominences that jet out
from the Sun’s surface.

Scientists speculate that sometimes one end

of a magnetic field loop will separate from the
surface of the Sun and whip about like an
untied shoelace. Eventually, the separated end
reconnects with the surface, closing the magnetic
loop. However, occasionally the loose end will
reconnect by entering the surface where a
neighboring loop connects. If the strength of the
magnetic force in the neighboring loop is weaker
when the loose end reconnects, it will release the
difference as excess energy.

On April 16, 2012, a spectacular medium-size solar flare and

prominence eruption occurred simultaneously.

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 The excess energy released
during magnetic reconnection
heats up charged particles in
the Sun’s corona, accelerating
them to near the speed of light.
These particles emit the energy
as massive flashes of radiation,
from radio waves to gamma
rays. Consequently, flares are
classified as A, B, C, M, or X,
according to the amount of
energy they release. Each class
is further characterized along a
scale ranging from 1 to 9. Thus,
an X1 flare belongs to the most
energetic class but is four times
In early January 2013, charged particles spun along magnetic loops emanating from a less powerful than an X5 flare.
pair of significantly active regions along the Sun’s surface.
X-class flares can cause radiation
storms in the Earth’s atmosphere
and impact radio transmissions and other wireless communications. They also pose significant health risks to any
astronauts orbiting the Earth, since their spacecraft are not as shielded by the Earth’s magnetosphere.

In 2013, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) managed to snap the first photos of the magnetic
reconnection process in action. These images may help scientists confirm the cause of solar flares and devise
better ways of predicting when they will occur.

The Sun emitted the first four X-class flares of 2013 on May 12–14. Clockwise from top left, the flares were classified as
X1.7, X2.8, X3.2, and X1.2.

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 On May 13, 2013, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of
an X2.8 solar flare, one of the first four X-class flares of the year. The flare is
shown in the light of of 131 angstroms, a wavelength that is especially good
for showing intense heat.

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 A coronal mass ejection traveling at over 900 miles per second erupted
from the Sun on August 31, 2012. Three days later, it struck the Earth’s
magnetic field a glancing blow, producing auroras in the night sky.

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coronal mass
ejections

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs)

are massive bursts of energy and
solar material flung from the Sun
into space. They differ from solar
flares mostly in scale (CMEs are
stronger) and form (CMEs always
involve solar material, while flares
may not). It is easy to confuse
the two phenomena. Even some
astronomers conflate them on
occasion. Both are thought
to be triggered by magnetic
reconnection on the Sun’s
surface. Strong flares are often
accompanied by CMEs, but
each can occur in the absence
of the other.

When currents of magnetically

charged plasma try to erupt from
the Sun’s surface, they are usually
thwarted by the Sun’s sheer mass.
Gravity forces magnetic field lines
to bend back toward the Sun’s
surface, dragging streams of
plasma with them. Sometimes,
however, as a magnetic field line
is bent back into the Sun, it will
suddenly snap like a dry twig,
releasing tremendous amounts of
energy. This violent reaction hurls
a mass of charged particles into
space and, sometimes, directly
toward the Earth. A large CME can
contain a billion tons of electrically
charged matter in a long trail of
solar spit traveling close to the
speed of light, although most
CMEs travel much slower.

On June 7, 2011, the Sun unleashed a medium-size flare and a huge coronal mass
ejection. These three stills from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory were taken over a
period of just 30 minutes.

the strUctUre of oUr sUn 75

On September 1, 1859, Richard Carrington, a British astronomer, was watching sunspots when he observed
a sudden bright point of light on the Sun’s surface grow brighter and then slowly dim. The next day, the
Earth experienced a massive electromagnetic storm. Bright auroras appeared as far south as the Caribbean.
Carrington suspected that there might be some relationship between the storm and the solar activity he had
observed the day before and reported his theories to the Royal Astronomical Society. The episode would come
to be known as the Carrington Event, the strongest recorded geomagnetic storm ever sparked by a CME.

The first photograph of a CME was taken on December 14, 1971, by the Orbiting Solar Observatory (OSO-
7), the seventh in a series of nine satellites NASA launched between 1962 and 1975 to study the Sun. The
image was digitized to seven bits, compressed, and transmitted to the Naval Research Laboratory. The full,
uncompressed image would have taken almost 44 minutes to transmit.

NASA recorded the fastest CME on April 14, 2012. The Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), two
nearly identical satellites launched in 2006 to provide three-dimensional images of the Sun, clocked a CME
traveling between 2,900 and 3,200 kilometers (1,800 to 2,000 miles) per hour just as it erupted. Though the
CME eventually slowed, it took less than 17 hours to blow past the Earth.

sUn QUakes
Magnetically charged material belched from
the Sun’s surface often rains back down
into the chromosphere. Sometimes these
spouts of plasma rebound with such force
they create sun quakes, seismic waves that
ripple across the surface of the Sun just like
quakes on Earth. Astronomers predicted sun
quakes as early as 1972. But it wasn’t until a
team of NASA scientists analyzed 1996 data
from the SOHO mission that anyone observed
one. The picture—which wasn’t verified until
1998—was of an 11.3-magnitude quake,
about 40,000 times more powerful than
the famous 1906 quake that leveled San
Francisco. Still, few pictures of sun quakes
exist, although that may change as NASA
expands its observations of the Sun over the
next few years. NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory captured the first
image of a sun quake in 1996.

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In this image of a coronal mass ejection from NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, an occulting disk was used to block out the Sun’s
glare. Superimposed on the disk is an image of the Sun, scaled to its approximate size.

the strUctUre of oUr sUn 77

The biggest flow of electrically charged particles in our solar system is, of course, the solar wind. As you
can imagine, the movement of all that charge creates a very large magnetic field. In fact, the interplanetary
magnetic field it creates extends all the way through our solar system until it reaches interstellar space.

The combination of the Sun’s differential rotation and the solar wind’s dynamic pressure affects the shape
of this interplanetary magnetic field, twisting it into a spiral pattern that undulates like the skirt of a ballroom
dancer as she whirls about. In fact, the field rotates along with the Sun, making a full revolution every 25 days
on average. As it does so, the folds of this magnetically charged skirt interact with charged particles in the
Earth’s magnetosphere and create beautiful auroras in the skies near the North and South Poles.

interplanetary magnetic field

The dividing line between the inward magnetic field direction of one hemisphere of the Sun and
the outward direction of the other forms a neutral current sheet. This sheet undulates as the
solar wind carries the magnetic field outward in a spiral pattern created by the Sun’s rotation.

Opposite page: An illustration of a particle cloud blasted out from the Sun is superimposed over a photo of an aurora taken by an
astronaut on the International Space Station.

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 3
The
ImpORTaNce
Of
OuR SuN
Our Sun is one giant ball of energy. That’s true. But it is
also so much more than that. Before science revealed
the secrets of how our Sun functions, humans knew its
value and praised its worth. Nothing else in the sky was
as brilliant, and nothing else brought light and warmth
to their otherwise cold and dark world.

Our early ancestors didn’t know how, but they knew the
Sun was intimately connected to the fertility of the Earth.
Before they knew that the Earth revolved around the
Sun, they knew that it determined the seasons, bringing
the scorching summer heat, the autumn harvest, the
winter snow, and the rebirth of spring. Technology may
have expanded our understanding of the Sun, but its
allure has not diminished. Our Sun remains as important
to humanity today as when the first humans gazed upon
its splendor and wondered . . .
how far away is the sUn?
You might think that the answer to this question would be pretty straightforward. But for thousands of years,
astronomers and mathematicians have attempted to calculate the distance between the Earth and the
Sun, arriving at wildly different estimates. Over 2,000 years ago, the Greek astronomer and mathematician
Aristarchus of Samos calculated the distance to be between 18 and 30 times the distance between the Earth
and the Moon. As we now know, his method was not only inaccurate but also impractical. Since its formation
nearly 4.5 billion years ago, the Moon has slowly but steadily been moving farther and farther away from
the Earth, while the distance between the Sun and the Earth has remained relatively constant. So even if
Aristarchus’s method was accurate, it would require constantly measuring the changing distance between the
Earth and the Moon and updating that ratio to reflect the distance to the Sun.

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 Almost a hundred years after Aristarchus, Archimedes, another
Greek astronomer, claimed that Aristarchus actually estimated
the distance between the Earth and the Sun using only geometry.
According to Archimedes, Aristarchus calculated that the
distance was equal to about 10,000 times the radius of the Earth.
We know now that the distance is more than 23,000 times the
radius of the Earth. If Archimedes was reporting accurately on
the earlier astronomer, then Aristarchus’s estimation still wildly
missed the mark.

In the second century CE, Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy),

an Egyptian astronomer and mathematician of Greek The astronomer Claudius Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy)
descent, tried to calculate the distance between the Earth
and the Sun using a new (for his day) form of mathematics:
trigonometry. But he made a critical mistake. He tried to estimate the apparent sizes of the Sun and the Moon
and concluded that, as seen from Earth, the diameter of the Sun must be approximately equal to the diameter
of the Moon. Using this ratio, and complex calculations of the shadows that the Earth cast on the Moon during
lunar eclipses, Ptolemy computed the distance between the Earth and the Sun to be about 1,210 times the
radius of the Earth. Of course, Ptolemy’s estimate was way off, too. Nevertheless, for over 1,500 years, no one
really challenged it.

Finally, in the seventeenth

century, Western civilization
underwent a revolution
in scientific thinking. The
German astronomer and
mathematician Johannes
Kepler questioned Ptolemy’s
calculations and realized they
must be too low—much, much
too low. Telescopes had been
invented in Kepler’s time,
which allowed for far more
accurate measurements of
angles between the Earth and
the stars than Aristarchus and
Ptolemy could make using the
naked eye. Telescopes allowed
astronomers to calculate
distances between celestial
objects using a technique
called parallax.
A mid-nineteenth-century diagram illustrating planetary parallax

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 Imagine you are speeding down the highway in your car. You glance down at the needle on your speedometer
and see that you are traveling at 75 miles an hour, dangerously exceeding the posted speed limit of 65 miles an
hour. “Oh, dear!” you exclaim to the friend comfortably snuggled into the passenger seat. “I really need to slow
down.” Your friend, glancing over at the speedometer, replies, “Nonsense! You’re only going 65.” The reason
you worry and your friend does not is because of parallax, the different position of the speedometer needle
when viewed from two different lines of sight. From your position directly in front of the speedometer, you know
that you are speeding along at 75. But from his vantage point, the speedometer needle appears to be right at
the 65-mile-an-hour mark.

It turns out that astronomers can use parallax to measure the relative positions of celestial bodies and,
thereby, the distance between them. Christiaan Huygens, a Dutch astronomer and contemporary of Kepler’s,
used telescopic measurements of parallax to estimate that the distance between the Earth and the Sun was
equivalent to about 24,000 times the radius of the Earth, remarkably close to modern measurements. Giovanni
Cassini, an Italian, came even closer. Using trigonometry and studying Mars from two different points on Earth,
Cassini used parallax to calculate the distance from the Earth to the Sun to within about 6%.

Modern instruments are capable

of measuring distances longer
than 150 million meters (about
93,200 miles) to within a few
meters. But this precision
presents some new challenges.
For one thing, the orbit of
the Earth around the Sun is
an ellipse rather than a true
circle. As a result, the distance
between the Earth and the Sun
is constantly changing. On an
even more basic level, how
should we determine where the
Earth stops and the Sun begins?
Should we measure the distance
from the center of the Earth to
the center of the Sun? Should
we measure from the top of the
highest mountain on Earth to
the farthest reaches of the Sun’s
chromosphere?

A 1738 engraving of Christiaan Huygens’s 210-foot aerial telescope, which had an

eyepiece connected by a taut string to a short tube mounted on a pole. The tube contained
the light-gathering optics and could be maneuvered with the string.

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 For a long time, modern astronomers used a complex mathematical equation that involved the mass of the Sun,
the length of a day on Earth, and a fixed number known as the Gaussian gravitational constant to determine the
distance between the Earth and the Sun. But the Sun’s mass is always changing as the fusion reactions in its
core transform some of its mass into energy. To make things even more complicated, astronomers began using
the astronomical unit (AU), the distance between the Earth and the Sun, to express the distance between all
sorts of celestial bodies. Even a minor difference in the calculation could have huge effects when calculating the
distance of far-off solar systems and distant galaxies.

If all of this sounds confusing, rest assured, you are not alone. Many scientists have desired an easier method
of calculating cosmic distances. In 2012, they got their wish. The International Astronomical Union, the official
authority on such things, decided to redefine the AU. Under the new definition, an AU would no longer fluctuate
depending on the Sun’s mass or the length of an Earth day. Instead, a group of scientists reached a consensus
that the unit would be a simple constant. Today, the official distance between the Earth and the Sun (one AU) is
exactly 149,597,870,700 meters (almost 93 million miles).

from the
earth to
the sUn

Aphelion
---------
Earth’s farthest
point from the Sun
≈152.1 million km
(94,510,558.3 mi.)
Perihelion
---------
Earth’s closest
point to the Sun
≈147.1 million km
(91,403.702.4 mi.)

Earth’s orbit around the Sun is

1 Astronomical Unit (AU)
--------- elliptical, so the distance between
149,597.870,700 meters the two changes, depending on
(92,955,807.2 mi.) where Earth is located along its
orbit. In 2012, the International
Astronomical Union defined the mean
distance, or Astronomical Unit (AU),
to be 149,597,870,700 meters.

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 the sweet spot

For human beings (in fact, for all life on Earth), there is more to
this distance than simplifying astronomical measurements. Rather,
149,597,870,700 meters (almost 93 million miles) is a very special
number because that distance puts the Earth comfortably within
an area scientists call the circumstellar habitable zone, or CHZ.

At least as far as we know, all life-forms require an environment

with water in liquid form. In fact, all life-forms on Earth are based
on carbon compounds dissolved in a bath of H2O. When scientists
look for extraterrestrial life, therefore, they look for planets with
water. That means planets within the CHZ. Planets too far from
their star will be too cold—any water on the surface would freeze.
Planets too close to their star will be too hot—any water would
quickly boil away.

At 149,597,870,700 meters, Earth is in the sweet spot, the region around a star within which it is theoretically
possible for a planet to maintain liquid water on its surface. This near-perfect balance is thought to be the
primary reason that life took hold here.

Circumstellar Habitable Zone (CHZ)

Earth
Mars
U
1A km
7 0.7 mi.)
7,8 00
9 ,59 00,0
14 93,0
(≈
Sun

The circumstellar
habitable zone
(CHZ)—or the
Mercury
sweet spot—is the Venus
area around a star
where a planet will not
be too hot or too cold
to maintain liquid water
on its surface. In our solar
system, Earth is the only planet
that orbits within the Sun’s CHZ.

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titan—oUr best chance of finding
extraterrestrial life?

While planets orbiting within circumstellar habitable zones are the most likely places in the universe to
find extraterrestrial life, there is some controversy over what does and does not constitute habitability.
Some scientists argue, for example, that liquid water need not exist on the surface of a planet. In fact,
many scientists speculate that the best place to find extraterrestrial life within our solar system is in a
place far outside the CHZ.

Titan, the largest of 60 known moons of Saturn, exists so far away from the Sun that scientists speculate
any water on its surface must be in a solid state. Indeed, at –179 degrees Celsius (–290 degrees
Fahrenheit), any water on Titan’s surface would turn to (and stay) ice. But what about under the
surface? Based on data from a flyby of Titan by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, many scientists believe
that under this moon’s icy surface is a vast ocean of liquid water and ammonia. Combined with data
indicating Titan’s atmosphere may be rich in organic compounds, these scientists believe that Titan,
though far outside the official CHZ, may be the most suitable environment in our solar system to sustain
some form of extraterrestrial life.

In fact, in 2009, NASA prioritized funding for the Titan Saturn System Mission (TSSM), a joint mission
between NASA and the European Space Agency that would, among other things, look more closely for
signs of life on Titan. The fact that so many of the world’s leading astronomers and astrophysicists are
convinced that life could exist there calls into question whether CHZs are the only (or even the best)
places to search for life in the universe.

These false-color images of Titan were taken by the Cassini Orbiter in a 2005–06 flyby.

the importance of oUr sUn 87

let there be light

Our Sun is the primary source of light on Earth. In fact, nearly

all the light we see originated in the Sun. The gleam of the
Moon and the dim glow of planets in the night sky are mere
reflections of sunlight. The only other natural sources of
visible light on Earth come from the few creatures that use
chemical reactions to create bioluminescence, relatively rare
atmospheric events like lightning, and the very, very faint
glimmer of distant stars. All other visible light comes from
the Sun. After taking a journey lasting anywhere from several above left: A satellite view of sunlight
thousand to one million years, photons from deep within the falling on Earth
Sun’s core reach its surface. From there, they take a short 8.3
minutes to reach the Earth. above: The Moon glows with reflected sunlight.

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An 1874 engraving of Isaac Newton experimenting with light, while his roommate, John Wickins, looks on.

But what, exactly, is light? Around 55 BCE, Titus Lucretius Carus, a Roman poet and philosopher, speculated
that the light of the Sun was composed of minute particles that travel instantaneously across the universe. Over
1,500 years later, the French mathematician and philosopher René Descartes rejected this particle theory,
arguing that instead, light behaved much like sound waves, traveling faster through denser mediums. Isaac
Newton, a British mathematician and contemporary of Descartes, rejected the wave theory. He reasoned that,
if light was a wave, it would bend around objects the way other waves do, so in theory, we would be able to see
objects clearly even when they were situated behind other objects. Newton’s logic was compelling enough that
the majority of the scientific community embraced the particle theory of light well into the nineteenth century.

In 1918, a German theoretical physicist named Max Planck won the Nobel Prize for inventing quantum
mechanics. Planck suggested that, although light was a wave, finite amounts of it gained or lost energy based
on the frequency at which they vibrated. In 1926, Gilbert Lewis, an American, named these vibrating lumps of
light photons. Essentially, quantum mechanics allowed Lucretius, Descartes, and Newton all to be correct to
some degree. According to quantum mechanics, light is made up of photons that sometimes act like particles
and sometimes act like waves. If you find the dual nature of photons hard to visualize, you’re not the only one.
Even today, physicists struggle with light’s apparent schizophrenia.

In its broadest sense, sunlight is made up of an entire spectrum of electromagnetic radiation released by the
Sun as photons, some of which we see, most of which we do not. In fact, we only see about 44% of the
photons that reach Earth’s surface. Partly, this is because sunlight is filtered through the Earth’s atmosphere,
which blocks some forms of solar radiation. Mostly, however, we cannot see all of the light from the Sun
because many of the photons vibrate at wavelengths that are either too long (infrared) or too short (ultraviolet)
for our eyes to sense.

the importance of oUr sUn 89

evolUtion of sight
You owe the fact that you can read the words in this sentence to our Sun. By blanketing the Earth with
ultraviolet radiation, some of which bounces along the surface, our very early ancestors evolved the power
of sight. Whether something as complex as the eye was the product of evolution, however, has often been
controversial. Even Charles Darwin, the father of the theory, noted in his book On the Origin of Species that
the development of the power of sight through natural selection seems “absurd” at first glance. However, he
went on to suggest that the complex eyes we use today evolved gradually from simple optic nerves coated with
a pigment, which made them capable of sensing photons if not of perceiving light, color, or shape. All of that
would develop, according to Darwin, in “numerous gradations” over millions of years.

And, indeed, that seems to be precisely how it happened. Just recently, scientists have traced the origin of sight
to an ancient ancestor of the modern hydra, a tiny creature that lives in lakes, ponds, and streams in temperate
and tropical climates. Over 600 million years ago, the hydra’s predecessors—little more than blobs of goo
floating about Earth’s shallow seas—developed the ability to distinguish dark from light. Researchers from the
University of California, Santa Barbara, discovered that a gene called opsin was found in the DNA of hydras but
not sponges, even though sponges are the most primitive forms of all animals. The opsin gene is responsible
for triggering the production of light-sensitive proteins, also called opsins, that coat the surface of the hydra and
help the animals tell day from night. By tracking the opsin gene back in time, researchers were able to trace the
origin of sight to early forms of a group of animals known as Cnideria, which included ancient sea anemones
and jellyfish.

Scientists have traced the origin of sight to an

ancient group of animals called Cnideria,
which includes modern jellyfish,
as shown here.
Development of the eye took place during a particularly active evolutionary period known as the Cambrian
explosion. However, because the fossil record of the early Cambrian period is so poor, scientists turned to
computer programs designed to model small mutations exposed to natural selection. Remarkably, these
computer models found that a primitive light-sensing organ like a pigmented nerve could evolve into the
modern complex eye in as little as 400,000 years.

Scientists believe that early eyes consisted of “spots” where light-sensitive opsins surrounded an area of pigment
called the chromophore, which allowed primitive distinctions between levels of brightness. With these spots,
the animals could detect the presence of light but not the direction it came from. The ability to determine the
direction of light required the evolution of tiny cups where the eyespots were located. As light entered these cups,
it would hit different opsins depending on its angle. As the cups deepened, fewer opsins would be activated by
the bouncing light waves, providing a sharper and sharper indication of the direction of the light source.

Because these early see-ers lived in the ocean, they were exposed to the only two wavelengths of the
electromagnetic spectrum that can penetrate water: blue and green visible light. Scientists speculate that
this is the reason that eyes developed to detect only visible light—a narrow range of wavelengths within the
full spectrum.

how we see

Cornea

Pupil Optic
Lens
Retina nerve

The eye is like a built-in camera. The cornea directs light

through the pupil to the lens, which focuses an inverted image
on the retina. Millions of rods and cones in the retina detect Rods distinguish
color, motion, and shape and translate them into electrical motion and shape
Cones
signals. The signals are sent via the optic nerve to the brain for
distinguish color
processing and—voilà!—you see a butterfly!

the importance of oUr sUn 91

Eventually, the advantages of primitive forms of sight (catching food, avoiding dangers, and finding mates) led to
the evolution of your eyes. Though they are far more complex, the same basic principles remain. Light (photons
that act like both particles and waves) enters your eye, first passing through a football-shaped transparent
covering called the cornea. The cornea bends the light waves so that they focus on the pupil, the black opening
in the center of your eye. The pupil is surrounded by the iris, the colored part of your eye that closes and opens
as needed to let in or block out light. The light that gets past the iris passes through a lens, which both focuses
and inverts the light, sending it upside down toward the retina.

It is the retina that contains the millions of photoreceptor cells covered in those same opsin proteins that
sparked the evolutionary process some 600 million years ago. The opsins in your retina, however, come in two
different types. Rods detect only shades of gray, but are useful for distinguishing motion and shape. Cones,
which are usually concentrated toward the center of the retina, mostly detect one of three colors: red, blue,
or green. As each of these different types of opsins sends a signal over your optic nerve, your brain mixes
red, blue, and green into all the colors we see, much like an LED screen turns individual pixels into dramatic,
multicolored images.

By developing two eyes, early animals were able to better detect distance. If you’ve ever taken your glasses off
during a 3-D movie, you have probably noticed the overlapping, nearly identical two-dimensional images on
the screen and concluded that
the glasses somehow melded
them both to produce a single,
clear, three-dimensional image.
What you may not have realized
is that your eyes, not the glasses,
are performing this amazing
feat, and they do it all the time
. . . even without glasses. Since
each eye generates a slightly
different image, the brain can fill
in the slight differences between
the two in a way that creates a
single, three-dimensional image
sitting sharply in space. This
dimensionality helped greatly
enhance depth perception—and
eventually allowed us to enjoy
watching our favorite superheroes
leap from cinema screens.

A page illustrating binocular vision

from the notebooks of the fifteenth-
century Italian artist and scientist
Leonardo da Vinci

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the miracle (and cUrse)
of photosynthesis
One way or another, nearly all life on Earth owes the Sun a debt of gratitude. With very few exceptions, every
living thing on the planet obtains its energy directly from the Sun, through photosynthesis, or indirectly, by
consuming things that get their energy from the Sun. The one notable exception is a group of very simple,
single-celled microorganisms called Archaea, which usually can be found living in hot springs and volcanic
mud holes or in hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. As inhospitable as these places seem to us, scientists
believe that the early Earth was essentially one huge, scalding-hot thermal vent. Once the planet’s surface
cooled enough to form a crust, volcanic gases created a thick atmosphere of mostly ammonia, methane, and
water vapor (with a little bit of hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, and oxygen thrown in). As the Earth cooled, the
atmosphere condensed and fell back to the surface as a kind of toxic stew that formed the primordial ooze of
the early seas. It was in these seas that life on Earth first appeared.

Archaea, single-celled microorganisms, can thrive in boiling hot, sulfurous volcanic mud holes.

the importance of oUr sUn 93

 While no one knows precisely what the first form of life on Earth looked like, most scientists believe it was very
similar to today’s Archaea: single celled, without a nucleus, and remarkably consistent in shape and size. The
most notable characteristic of these first organisms is that they derived their energy completely independent of
the Sun. For all these early life-forms cared (if they could care), the Sun could fade to a bundle of smoldering
cinders. They simply didn’t need it. (And most modern Archaea still don’t.)

To live, all life-forms must find a way to convert the chemical energy in their environments to adenosine
triphosphate (ATP), the coenzyme that cells use to transport energy within the cell. Transporting energy between
cells requires an electron transport chain, something that will allow energy to cross the cell membrane. Usually
these chains consist of a chemical that will trade an electron (a donor) paired with a chemical that will attract
an electron (an acceptor). The whole process of converting and transporting energy is called cellular respiration.
Generally, it happens in one of two ways. Aerobic respiration uses oxygen to break down and transport the
energy in sugars. Anaerobic respiration uses, well, anything else (usually sulfate, nitrate, sulfur, or fumerate).

It turns out that oxygen is incredibly eager to accept electrons. It wants them. It needs them. It desires electrons
so passionately that it will cut ahead of other chemicals to get them if it has to. Oxygen’s constant craving
for electrons makes aerobic respiration 19 times as efficient as anaerobic. In anaerobic respiration, one unit
of glucose is converted to two units of ATP. In aerobic respiration, it’s 38. Oxygen is so efficient at attracting
electrons that we call the chemical reaction in which a substance loses electrons oxidation.

Oxygen has another interesting characteristic: it is the by-product of photosynthesis. Before photosynthesis,
almost all life on Earth used anaerobic respiration to create energy. Sure, it wasn’t particularly efficient, but
free-floating oxygen was hard to come by. Earth’s early atmosphere contained exactly none. What little oxygen
there was on Earth was bound up in water. But all of that changed around 2.6 billion years ago (no one knows
precisely when), after cyanobacteria in the primordial seas evolved (no one knows precisely how) oxygenic
photosynthesis, the quirky ability to combine sunlight with carbon dioxide and water to produce ATP.

oxygenic photosynthesis

The chemical processes involved in oxygenic photosynthesis are so complex it’s a wonder life took only 400
million years to figure it out. Put simply, any pigment is capable of absorbing sunlight in the form of photons.
In oxygenic photosynthesis, there are two light reactions. Oxygen is created in the first one and released into
the atmosphere. When chlorophyll molecules absorb photons, they pass the energy along from molecule to
molecule until it reaches a structure called a reaction center. A pair of special chlorophyll molecules called
P680 absorbs the light energy, becomes unstable, and ejects one electron for every photon. The electrons are
passed, two at a time, into the electron transport chain. This process of passing electrons between molecules
allows energy to move across cell walls and is one way plants produce electrochemical energy.

In order to repeat the process, the electrons ejected from P680 have to be replaced. This is accomplished
by splitting two water molecules into four free-floating protons, four free-floating electrons, and one molecule
of oxygen:
+ –
2H2O 4H + 4e + O2
The electrons are used by P680, the protons are later used in the production of ATP, and the oxygen is released
into the atmosphere to become the air we breathe.

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 1
harvesting
sUnlight
Chloroplast
to make
oxygen

2
1. The oxygen we breathe is a product of
Thylakoid a light reaction that occurs in special cellular
membrane structures called chloroplasts during
oxygenic photosynthesis.

2. The light reaction takes place in the

Photons
membranes of structures called thylakoids.

3 3. When chlorophyll molecules in a light-

harvesting complex absorb photons, the energy
passes from one chlorophyll molecule to another
until it reaches a reaction center.

4. In the reaction center, P680 (a pair of special

Chlorophyll chlorophyll molecules) absorbs the light energy
P680
molecule
reaction Light harvesting and ejects one electron for each photon.
center complex
5. The ejected electrons move into the electron
5 transport chain, which carries energy across cell
4
membranes.

6. To replace the ejected electrons, two water

To electron transport
chain
molecules are split into four electrons, four
P680 protons, and one oxygen molecule (O2).

Released into 7. The electrons are used by P680, the protons

7 the atmosphere are stored inside the thylakoid for use in the
6 production of ATP—and the molecule of oxygen
p
is released into the atmosphere.
e

H2O p o
e o 7
e p
H2O o
o
e p

the importance of oUr sUn 95

 Cyanobacteria, similar to these found in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park, were the first organisms capable of photosynthesis.

the oxygen catastrophe

Roughly seven-eighths of Earth’s history comprises the Precambrian era, from the birth of the planet about 4.5
billion years ago until roughly 541 million years ago. Although very little is known about this early period, one
thing is clear: anaerobic organisms like the humble Archaea dominated. They were multitudinous. They were
everywhere. And for the vast majority of our planet’s history, they ruled.

Then, one cyanobacterium performed a photosynthetic magic trick some 2.7 billion years ago and everything
started to change. Through photosynthesis, it created energy at lightning-fast speeds (compared to all the other
life-forms at the time) and released oxygen as a by-product. Oxygen began accumulating in Earth’s atmosphere,
slowly at first, as cyanobacteria capable of oxygenic photosynthesis gained a foothold on their genetic competition.
But around 2.4 billion years ago, a critical threshold was reached and the concentration of oxygen in Earth’s
atmosphere exploded. Paleobiologists call this the Great Oxygenation Event (or the Oxygen Catastrophe,
depending on your perspective). For anaerobic organisms, however, it was the end of an era. Oxygen is poison to
them, and its rapid buildup in Earth’s atmosphere was probably responsible for wiping most of them out. In fact,
you could say that the miracle of photosynthesis caused the largest extinction event in Earth’s history.

For aerobic organisms, photosynthesis was a godsend. It was a vastly more efficient mechanism for organisms
to convert and transport energy. It allowed for larger and more complex life-forms to evolve. Some scientists
believe it was the catalyst for the Cambrian explosion, the sudden appearance of dozens of diverse animal
phyla around 530 million years ago. For a period of about 80 million years, the rate of evolution accelerated and
helped produce the vast diversity of plants and animals that has been the hallmark of our planet ever since.

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 4
The
WORShIp
Of
OuR SuN
When humans finally arrived on the scene,
life’s connection with the Sun took a decidedly
theological turn. In fact, as far as we can tell,
Sun worship is almost as old as humanity itself.
Humans have venerated the Sun ever since
they gazed upon the brilliance of its rising and
the splendor of its setting. Nearly every culture
has invented some form of Sun god. Since many
civilizations sprang up with the development of
agriculture, it comes as no surprise that the
inhabitants of the first ones worshiped the Sun
for providing daily sustenance.

Many early cultures fashioned elaborate

mythologies to explain the Sun’s creation and
movements. Some believed the Sun traveled
across the sky in a boat or a chariot. Others
believed there were multiple Suns that appeared
from among the leaves of a colossal cosmic tree
at different points during the day.
aZtec: tonatiUh and hUitZilopochtli
The Aztec people believed that there was a series of Suns and had a cyclical solar
calendar similar to that of the Maya. Aztec cosmology held that each Sun was
a god that ruled during its own cosmic era and that their civilization
was in the era ruled by Tonatiuh. Tonatiuh was the fifth Sun in
the cycle and had expelled the fourth Sun from the sky in
a celestial battle. According to the Aztec creation myth,
the Sun would refuse to move through the sky unless
it was appeased with human sacrifices. As many
as 20,000 people were sacrificed each year to
Tonatiuh and other gods.

Huitzilopochtli was a Sun god worshipped by

the Aztecs and other Mesoamericans, including
the Mexicas of Tenochtitlàn, the famed city-
state located on an island in Lake Texcoco in
the Valley of Mexico (the site of modern-day
Mexico City). Huitzilopochtli was also the god of
war and human sacrifice. He is often depicted
as a blue man with a great crest of hummingbird
feathers on his head. According to Aztec mythology,
Huitzilopochtli’s mother became pregnant with him
when a ball of hummingbird feathers fell from the
sky and touched her. Huitzilopochtli’s siblings felt their
mother’s mysterious pregnancy brought dishonor upon the
family. One sister, Coyolxauhqui, encouraged her siblings, who were
all stars, to kill their mother. But Huitzilopochtli sprang from his
mother’s womb, cut off Coyolxauhqui’s head, and threw it
into the sky, where it became the Moon. The Sun god Tonatiuh’s face
stares out from the central disk
of an Aztec calendar stone.

A modern rendering of
Huitzilopochtli based on
images in Aztec codices

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 fon: liZa

The Fon people of West Africa worshiped a Sun god

named Liza, a boy who represented heat, work, and
strength. Liza had a twin sister, the Moon goddess
Mawu, who represented night and motherhood.
Liza and Mawu were the children of Nana Buluku,
the first mother. According to Fon mythology,
the universe was created as a result of the twins’
incestuous relationship, which was spurred on by
a cosmic serpent named Da. After the birth of the
universe, Liza is said to have fathered a son,
named Gu, who was born as a divine tool in the
shape of an iron sword. According to the Fon, Liza
used Gu to shape the world and to teach humans
how to work iron.

Twins or dualistic powers appear in many African

creation myths, as does a huge snake often
associated with the rainbow. The Bushongo people
of the Congo region had a slightly different Sun
mythology. They believed that the creator god
Bumba was the sole inhabitant of a universe made
of water. One day Bumba vomited up the Sun, which
Gu, the son of the Sun god Liza and his twin sister, dried up the water, creating dry land. Bumba then
the Moon goddess Mawu vomited up the first humans to inhabit the new land.

celtic: lUgh

The Sun god of the Irish Celts was Lugh. He was the grandson
of the god Balor, leader of the giant Fomorians, who were
sometimes associated with storms, disease, and other powers of
nature. According to Celtic prophesy, Balor would be killed by a
grandson, so fearing for his life, Balor sent Lugh away. The young
god was raised by Manannán, the god of the sea, who taught him
to be an excellent warrior. When Lugh reached manhood,
he joined the Tuatha Dé Danaan who were oppressed by Balor
and the Fomorians.

Lugh and the Tuatha Dé Danaan waged war against the Fomorians.
Balor had only one eye, but it was capable of killing whoever looked
upon it. He usually kept it closed except in battle. Just as Balor was
opening his eye at the battle of Mag Tured, the brave Lugh cast a
stone at it. Hitting its target with immense force, the stone pushed
the evil eye out the back of Balor’s head, killing the god instantly Lugh had to prove himself to Nuada, king of
and wreaking havoc on the army of giants behind him. To this day, the Tuatha Dé Danaan, by performing several
the Celtic people venerate Lugh with an annual festival in August tasks, including winning at chess, as shown
commemorating the beginning of harvest. in this illustration from a 1905 book.

the worship of oUr sUn 101

A depiction of Re-Horakhty (left) in the Temple of Hathor at Dendera, Egypt

egyptian: re
The ancient Egyptians had many gods, but the Sun god Re (also Ra) was one of the most revered. In fact, his
name may be a variant of the Egyptian word for “creator.” During later Egyptian dynasties, Re was merged
with the god Horus (Re-Horakhty) and was believed to rule over all parts of the world. Re was thought to
have created all forms of life, bringing each into existence by calling its secret name. Among one cult of Re,
worshipers believed that the god’s tears created man. The Egyptian Book of the Dead recounts how Re cut
himself and his blood transformed into the two intellectual personifications Hu (authority) and Sia (mind).

By the Fourth Dynasty, Egyptian pharaohs were declaring that they were Re, manifest on Earth. This claim
caused worship of the god to soar in popularity, leading pharaohs of the Fifth Dynasty to spend the majority
of their treasure building Sun temples and adorning the walls of their tombs with increasingly complex Re
mythology. When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire, Egyptians abandoned the
worship of Re, though study of the god remained an academic interest among Egyptian priests.

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chinese: xi he and
the ten sUns

The ancient Chinese believed that there were

ten Suns, the children of the goddess Xi He
and Di Jun, the lord of heaven. Xi He bathed
her children in a lake located in the Valley of
the Light in the East and placed them in an
enormous mulberry tree, whose branches rose
to the heavens. Each day, one of the Suns would
journey across the sky toward the summit of
Mount Yen-Tzu in the West.

One day, the Suns grew tired of this routine and

decided that they would all take the journey
together. But the heat of ten Suns withered
the people’s crops, dried up the rivers, and
threatened to destroy the Earth. In desperation,
Emperor Yao prayed to Di Jun, asking him to
command his children to appear one at a time.
But the Suns defied Di Jun, so he sent his
archer, Yi, to frighten them by firing arrows from
his magic bow. Instead, Yi shot all but one of the
Suns. In anger, Di Jun condemned the archer to
live as a mortal on Earth. The only child spared
by Yi is the Sun we see today.

hindU: sUrya
Ancient Hindus worshiped the Sun god Surya,
sometimes depicted as a man with three eyes
and four arms. Two of his hands were said
to hold water lilies. He used a third hand to
encourage worshipers to approach him, while
blessing them with the fourth hand. Surya was
thought to ride a chariot pulled by seven horses.

According to Hindu mythology, Surya married

a goddess named Sanjna. Because she could
not bear his intense light and heat, she fled
into the forest and disguised herself as a mare.
But Surya discovered where she had hidden.
Appearing as a horse, he approached her and
the two were reunited. Eventually, she bore him
several children. However, Sanjna’s domestic India’s thirteenth-century Konârak Sun Temple
duties were made intolerable by Surya’s heat. represents the chariot of Surya, the Hindu Sun god, led
So she appealed to her father, who cut Surya’s by a team of seven horses.
body to reduce his brightness to one-eighth of
its original brilliance.

the worship of oUr sUn 103

inca: inti

The Inca of ancient Peru worshiped the benevolent Sun god Inti, believed to be the ancestor of the Inca
people. Inti was married to the Earth goddess Pachamama. They had two children: a son, Manco Capac, and
a daughter, Mama Ocllo. Inca mythology holds that Inti taught his children the methods of civilization and sent
them to Earth with orders to teach humanity. Manco and Mama were told to build the Inca a capital city with a
magic golden wedge that would fall to the ground. The Inca believed Cuzco to be this city and, even today, the
Festival of Inti Raymi is celebrated there each year.

A detail of a replica of the golden disc representing Inti, the Inca Sun god

inUit: malina

Ancient Inuit people believed in a Sun goddess, Malina. Her brother was the Moon god Anningan. According
to Inuit mythology, the two got into a quarrel, which caused Malina to storm off in anger. Anningan chased
her, whether to apologize or continue the argument remains a point of dispute. Because Anningan did not eat
in his constant pursuit of Malina, the Moon waned as he grew thinner and thinner. The new Moon appeared
when Anningan finally stopped to eat. Then, as Anningan resumed the chase, the Moon waxed again. Only
occasionally, during a solar eclipse, was Anningan ever thought to catch up with Malina.

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greek: helios
and apollo

In Greek mythology, the god Helios personified

the Sun. Helios was thought to be the son of
Hyperion and Theia, two of the twelve Titans,
the original sons and daughters of Gaia, the
physical incarnation of the Earth. Helios’s sister
was the goddess Selene, the Moon. Each day,
Helios drove the chariot of the Sun across the
sky and each night, he returned to the East
through Oceanus, the sea covering the other
side of the world. According to Homer, the
chariot was driven by four fiery steeds named
Pyrois, Aeos, Aethon, and Phlegon.

In the Odyssey, Homer relates the story of how

Odysseus and his crew arrive at Thrinacia, the
island where Hyperion kept the sacred red
cattle of the Sun. Odysseus warns his men
not to touch the animals, but when supplies
run short, they slaughter and eat a few of
the cattle. Upon hearing the news, Hyperion
warns Zeus (father of the gods) that if the
men are not destroyed, he will take the Sun
to the underworld. In response, Zeus destroys
Odysseus’s ship with a lightning bolt, killing all
but Odysseus.

As Roman influences filtered into Greek

culture, Helios was increasingly identified with
Apollo, the god of light. Some literature even
conflated the two gods. Though the Romans
had their own Sun god, Sol, Apollo slowly
became the god most closely associated with
the cult of the Sun in both cultures. However,
during the same period, Sun worship was
on the decline in Greece. In fact, by the late
Hellenistic Period, the island of Rhodes
was one of the few remaining places
where Helios was worshiped fervently. In
one religious spectacle, the worshipers
in Rhodes would drive a flaming chariot
drawn by four horses over the edge of a
cliff into the sea.

A fragment of a vase depicting Alexander the

Great as the Sun god Helios

the worship of oUr sUn 105

 japanese:
amaterasU

Amaterasu is the Sun goddess of

Shinto, the oldest (and still most
practiced) Japanese religion.
Some consider Shinto less a
religion than a set of rituals to
connect the Japanese people
to their ancestors. However,
the practice is replete with a
mythology as complex as any
religion.

According to Shinto mythology,

Amaterasu fled to a cave when
her brother, Susanowo, treated
her badly. Closing the entrance
with an enormous stone, she
caused the world to be plunged
into darkness. The Shinto gods
arranged to have a party just
outside the entrance to the cave,
where they placed beautiful jewels
and a huge mirror. The celestial
goddess Amenouzume performed
a bawdy dance, making all the
gods laugh. The music, laughter,
and dancing drew Amaterasu to
open the cave. When she saw her
brilliance reflected in the mirror,
she was so fascinated that she left
the cave and brought light back
into the world.

An 1918 illustration shows Amaterasu

emerging from her cave after hearing the
music and laughter of the other gods.

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iranian: mithra

Though the Sun god Mithra (also called

Mithras) appeared in many civilizations
(including the Indian, Babylonian, and Greco-
Roman), most scholars agree that Mithra’s
origins can be traced to Iran, or ancient Persia.
The god is known to have been worshiped in
Iran as far back as 558 BCE.

The similarities between the story of Mithra and

the Christian story of Jesus have led many to
refer to Mithra as the “Pagan Christ.” Indeed,
worshipers of both deities have referred to them
variously as the Way, the Truth, and the Light.
Mithra has also been described as the Good
Shepherd. According to Iranian mythology,
Mithra was born in a cave on December 25
and acted as the mediator between god and
humanity. Mithra was seen as a benevolent
deity, the bringer of health and wellness. Early
depictions of Mithra show him riding a chariot
of fire drawn by white horses.

This Roman relief carving shows the birth of Mithra (Mitrhas) from
the cosmic egg. He holds a dagger and a torch and is surrounded
by the signs of the zodiac.

navajo: tsohanoai
The Navajo worshiped the god Tsohanoai, who
was thought to carry the Sun across the sky on
his back every day and hang it on a peg on the
west wall of his house at night. According to the
Navajo, Tsohanoai had two children, Nayenezgani
and Tobadzistsini. They lived with his estranged
wife in the Far West. Once the children grew older,
they sought out their father, hoping he would
join them in their quest to fight off the evil spirits
tormenting humanity. On their journey, they met
Spider Woman, who gave them two magic feathers
to keep them safe. Eventually, the children found
Tsohanoai and the god was so happy, he gave
them magic arrows to help fight off the evil spirits.

The traditional Navajo home, a hogan, is constructed with the

door facing east toward the rising Sun.

the worship of oUr sUn 107

norse: freyr

The Norse god Freyr was associated with the Sun,

fair weather, and fertility, and is often pictured with
a large phallus. He was thought to bring humanity
pleasure and peace. In Norse mythology, Freyr was
presented as a son of the sea god Njörôr. Freyr
rode a boar called Gullinbursti and was said to
possess a magic ship that could always catch the
wind. When not in use, the ship could be folded
together and kept in a pouch.

According to the most extensive Norse myths,

Freyr fell in love with the mortal Gerôr. To take her
as his wife, Freyr was forced to give up his magic
sword, which was capable of fighting on its own.
However, according to Norse prophesy, without
the sword, Freyr will be killed during Ragnarök,
an apocalyptic battle that will end with the world An eleventh-century Swedish statuette of the Norse Sun god Freyr
submerged in water and humanity rebirthed by the
only two human survivors.

polynesian:
ra or la

In Polynesia, the Sun god was called

Ra or La, but he was not revered
as much as in other mythologies.
In fact, he was forced to slow down
in his trip across the sky by the
demigod hero, Maui. According to
Polynesian mythology, there was
never enough time during the day for
Maui’s mother to make bark cloth,
so Maui fashioned a rope from the
sacred tresses of his wife, Hina.
Then one morning, as the Sun was
rising, Maui caught it and beat it with
the magic jawbone of his deceased
grandmother. After that, the battered
Sun could only limp along the sky,
creating a longer day for Maui’s
mother to work.

Besides using his dead grandmother’s jawbone to slow down the Sun,
Maui used it to fish islands, including New Zealand, out of the sea.

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mesopotamian: shamash

The ancient Mesopotamians worshiped a Sun god named Shamash. Because Shamash could view everything
on Earth, he was known as the god of justice and was depicted as a king seated on a throne. He had two
children, Misharu, who represented the law, and Kittu, who represented justice. At night, Shamash was thought
to travel through the underworld and exit every morning in the East to begin his journey across the sky to the
West. Shamash was often depicted symbolically as a winged solar disk.

Shown seated on a
throne, Shamash hands
the code of laws to King
Hammurabi of Babylon.
The laws are carved into
the bottom of this roughly
4,000-year-old stela,
which is now in the
Louvre in Paris.

the worship of oUr sUn 109

“the purpOse Of LIfe Is the InvestIgatIOn
Of the sun, the mOOn, and the heavens.”

—anaxagOras, 459 bce

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 5
The
hISTORy
Of OuR
SuN
When early humans observed the sky, they saw
that the Sun, stars, and planets appeared to
travel around the Earth. From their perspective,
moreover, the Earth seemed to be stationary.
The logical conclusion was that the Earth must
be the immobile center of the universe, around
which everything else traveled in perfect
circles. Though this geocentric (literally, “Earth-
centered”) model predated them, Plato and
his student Aristotle, Greek philosophers of the
fourth century BCE, provided the best logical
explanation for this view.

In his famous book Republic, Plato describes

the cosmos as a series of crystalline spheres
surrounding the Earth, one nested inside the
other like a set of Russian matryoshka dolls.
The spheres were arranged in order outward
from the Earth at the center to the Moon,
the Sun, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, and, finally, the fixed stars, which were
located on a giant outer shell Plato called
the celestial sphere. He imagined that the
spheres turned along a Spindle of Necessity,
spun by the three Fates.
 the aristotelian model
Aristotle had a more mathematical (but no less erroneous) explanation for the movement of the cosmos. The
spherical Earth was still at the center of the universe, but all the other celestial bodies were attached to 47
to 56 completely transparent, concentric spheres made of an incorruptible substance he called aether. But
according to Aristotle, the natural tendencies of the elements—earth, water, air, fire—explained the placement
of substances in the cosmos. Since earth was the heaviest element, it had the strongest movement toward the
center. Water, which was less heavy, tended to form a layer surrounding the Earth. Air and fire, being lighter
still, had a tendency to move upward, away from the center. Aether was even lighter and explained why the
planets, embedded in solid spheres of the substance, were the farthest out.

In addition, Aristotle held that there was one outermost sphere where the “Prime Mover” lived. Aristotle
imagined that the Prime Mover caused this outermost sphere to rotate at a constant angular velocity, and that
this turning motion was imparted to each inner sphere, causing the whole universe to spin. Aristotle’s model
allowed for each of the concentric spheres to have a different but constant velocity and, therefore, could explain
many features of planetary motion.

Despite the apparent

logic of Aristotle’s model,
it could not account
for all of the movement
of celestial bodies the
ancient Greeks observed.
The most problematic of
these observations was
the apparent retrograde
motion of some of the
planets. Every so often,
it appeared that a few of
the planets would slow,
start traveling in the
opposite direction, slow,
and then travel back
along the original direction
of their orbits. Aristotle’s
aether spheres, always
the same distance from
the Earth and moving
at constant velocities,
could not explain
these observations.

A woodcut showing Aristotle’s geocentric system of the universe from the 1539
edition of Cosmographia, by Peter Apian.

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 the ptolemaic model

ptolemy’s Planet
epicycles

Epicycle

Deferent
Apparent
retrograde
motion

Center of
Equant mass Earth

The Ptolemaic model explained

apparent retrograde motion by the
combined movement of a planet
around an epicycle and a deferent.

Over 500 years later, in his book Almagest, the Hellenistic astronomer Claudius Ptolemaeus devised a model of
the cosmos that kept the Earth at the center of the universe but accounted for the apparent retrograde motion
of the planets. According to Ptolemy (as he was known to his friends), each planet moved along two or more
different spheres. One was called a deferent and the other, an epicycle.

The deferent was a ring centered on a point (the center of mass) halfway between the Earth and a hypothetical
point in space that Ptolemy named the equant. The center point of a planet’s epicycle was on the deferent. As
the planet spun around on its epicycle, it simultaneously traveled around the deferent. (Some planets had two
epicycles. The first one was centered on the deferent and the second one was centered on the first epicycle.)
These combined movements caused the planets to sometimes move closer to the Earth and accounted for why
terrestrial observers were tricked into thinking that the planets sometimes slowed, stopped, or even moved in the
opposite direction. This elegant—if complicated—explanation for apparent retrograde motion was so persuasive
that European and Islamic astronomers accepted Ptolemy’s cosmological model for over a millennium.

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 heliocentrism
Despite the dominance of the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic models, there were several non-geocentric models
of the universe proposed by various philosophers, mathematicians, and astronomers as far back as the fifth
century BCE. The Greek philosopher Philolaus, for example, speculated that the center of the universe was a
central fire around which the Earth, Sun, Moon,
and planets all revolved in circular motions.

The first person to have proposed a heliocentric,

or Sun-centered, model, however, was the
mathematician Aristarchus of Samos in the third
century BCE. Although Aristarchus’s writings
describing a heliocentric model have been lost
to time, we have descriptions of them by some
of his contemporaries. The mathematician
Archimedes’ book The Sand Reckoner, for
example, describes a work in which Aristarchus
held that the universe was many times greater
than previously thought and that the Sun
and stars remained stationary while the Earth
revolved around the Sun on a circular orbit.

Later, in Roman-occupied Europe, there

was occasional speculation about a Aristarchus of Samos, an astronomer who posited a heliocentric universe,
heliocentric model. In the fifth century is pictured in this woodcut from Liber Chronicarum, also known as the
CE, the North African scholar Martianus Nuremberg Chronicle, published in 1493.
Capella opined that Venus and Mercury
revolved around the Sun. During the late Middle Ages, Nicole d’Oresme, a French bishop, speculated that the
Earth rotated on its axis, while Nicholas of Cusa, a German Cardinal, questioned whether there was any reason
to hold that either the Sun or the Earth was the center of the universe.

the maragha revolUtion

In 1259, an Iranian scientist and astronomer, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, built an observatory in the hills west of
Maragha (also known as Maragheh), a city in northwest Iran. The best Islamic astronomers studied at the
observatory and began to produce alternative configurations of Ptolemy’s model that were more accurate at
predicting planetary motions.

In the fourteenth century, one of these astronomers, Ibn al-Shatir, used trigonometry to demonstrate that the
Earth was not, in fact, the exact center of the universe. In his book, A Final Inquiry Concerning the Rectification
of Planetary Theory, al-Shatir introduced a cosmological model that eliminated the need for Ptolemy’s equants,
in part by moving the Earth slightly from its position in the center of the universe.

Although, strictly speaking, al-Shatir’s model did not place the Sun in the center of universe, many historians
speculate that it was the inspiration for the Polish mathematician and astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, who
would propose to the Western world an almost identical (but heliocentric) model some 150 years later. However,
no one has yet demonstrated definitively that Copernicus knew about al-Shatir’s book or the work being
accomplished at the Maragha observatory.

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This miniature painting from a sixteenth-century manuscript pictures Nasir al-Din al-Tusi
at his writing desk in the observatory west of Maragha.

the history of oUr sUn 117

the copernican
revolUtion

In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus was the first in the Western

world to challenge Ptolemy’s geocentric model. In De
Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolution
of Celestial Spheres), Copernicus demonstrated that the
motion of celestial bodies can be explained without requiring
that the Earth be the center of the universe. In the book,
Copernicus laid out seven theses that formed the basis of
his model:

1. There is no one center of all celestial spheres.

2. The center of the Earth is not the center of the

universe.

3. All the spheres revolve around the Sun, which is the

center of the universe.

4. The distance between the Earth to the outermost

celestial sphere is so large that the distance between
the Earth and the Sun is imperceptible in comparison.

5. The motion that appears in the firmament is not the

result of the movement of the heavens, but of Earth’s
movement.

6. What appears as the motion of the Sun derives from

the motion of the Earth around the Sun.

7. The apparent retrograde motion of the planets arises

not from their motion, but from the Earth’s motion.

Copernicus had more or less completed his manuscript

around 1533. But, despite urging from many of his
contemporaries, he refused to openly publish the
book, fearing the backlash his theses might generate.
Copernicus’s reluctance to publish his theories was, in part,
because heliocentrism conflicted with the prevailing views of
the Catholic Church and the common understanding of the
universe as explained in the Bible. Chronicles 16:30 states
that “the world also shall be stable, that it not be moved,”
while Ecclesiastes 1:5 notes that “the sun also ariseth, and
the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he
arose.” Copernicus knew that his theories would upend
not only modern understandings of astronomy, but also the
conventional Christian cosmology derived from scriptures
like these.

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An illustration of the universe according to the Copernican system from Harmonia Macrocosmica (1660–61) by Andreas Cellarius

the history of oUr sUn 119

While Copernicus was discovering truths that contradicted the official Catholic cosmology, the Protestant
Reformation, led by German theologian Martin Luther, was sparking outright revolution against the Catholic
Church. In 1539, Philipp Melanchthon, a German scholar and avowed ally of Luther, arranged for Copernicus to
take on a pupil, Georg Rheticus, a young (and likely Protestant) German mathematician. Rheticus studied with
Copernicus for two years, after which he wrote his own book, Narratio Prima (First Account), which outlined
Copernicus’s model. When Copernicus saw the favorable reception Rheticus’s book enjoyed, he finally agreed
to publish De Revolutionibus. Its printing was overseen by a Lutheran theologian, Andreas Osiander, who
completed the first copy on May 24, 1542, the very day Copernicus died. Legend holds that when Osiander
placed the book in his hands,
Copernicus awoke from a stroke-
induced coma, looked upon his
life’s work . . . and died.

With so many Protestants involved

in the publication of Copernicus’s
work, one would think it would
have received a warm welcome
from Martin Luther. But, initially,
he was one of the most vocal
critics of heliocentrism. Luther
is said to have denounced
Copernicus’s theory during a
dinner conversation, evoking
the biblical story of the Battle of
Gibeon in the Book of Joshua.
In the story, the Hebrews, with
Joshua leading them, were
winning a battle against the
rebellious Gibeonites at a place
known as Beth-Horon. The
Hebrews pursued the Gibeonites
down the hillsides but feared that
their enemies would escape once
night fell. So Joshua prayed and
commanded the Sun to stand
still. Luther (and others) took this
story as evidence that the Sun
did, in fact, move and could not,
therefore, be the center of
the universe.

Copernicus’s theories were widely

opposed in Catholic circles as Legend has it that Copernicus received the first copy of his book De Revolutionibus on
well. The German Jesuit Nicolaus his deathbed, as pictured in this nineteenth-century illustration.
Serarius was one of the first
to condemn heliocentrism as
heretical in a manuscript published in 1609. Like Luther, Serarius cited the passage in Joshua describing the
Battle of Gibeon (marking, perhaps, the last time the Lutherans and Jesuits would agree on anything for the
next 500 years). One of the strongest denunciations came from an Italian Catholic priest, Francesco Ingoli, who
wrote an essay in 1616 condemning heliocentrism as “philosophically untenable and theologically heretical.”

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“and yet it moves”

The Catholic Church’s growing opposition to heliocentrism would play itself out in a series of events culminating
in the Italian mathematician and astronomer Galileo Galilei being found guilty of heresy and sentenced to
life imprisonment by the Roman Inquisition. In 1609, after hearing about the invention of Dutch perspective
glasses, Galileo constructed his own more powerful telescopes. He quickly began astronomical observations
and by early 1610, published a small book, Sidereus Nuncius (The Starry Messenger), about his discovery of
mountains on the Moon, moons in orbit around Jupiter, and the star clouds we now know as stellar nebulae.
Though Galileo’s claims seemed fantastical, they were soon verified by Jesuit astronomers who had obtained
telescopes of their own. Nevertheless, some Catholics defended geocentrism on a biblical basis and refused to
even look through a telescope.

A nineteenth-century illustration shows Galileo (to the right of the

telescope) demonstrating his telescope to the Doge in Venice.
 In 1613, Cosimo Boscaglia, a
professor of philosophy, was
conversing with Galileo’s patron,
Cosimo II de’Medici, Grand Duke of
Tuscany. When Boscaglia asserted
that Galileo’s claims were contrary
to scripture, Benedetto Castelli, a
Benedictine abbot and former student
of Galileo’s, immediately jumped to
his teacher’s defense. When Galileo
heard of the heated exchange, he
felt compelled to write to Castelli and
explain his view of the appropriate
way to interpret scriptural passages
concerning the motion of celestial
bodies, thus unwittingly setting in
motion the events that would lead to
his condemnation.

In a fiery sermon delivered in late

1614, a Dominican friar named
Tommaso Caccini made one of
the first public attacks on Galileo.
Preaching on Joshua’s Battle at
Gibeon, Caccini denounced Galileo
and all those who would espouse
his beliefs. Sometime in early 1615,
Niccolò Lorini, Cassini’s friend and
fellow Dominican, obtained a copy
of Galileo’s letter to Castelli and sent
it to Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfondrati,
The title page from the 1632 edition of Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the secretary of the Roman Inquisition.
Two Chief World Systems Word about what Lorini had done soon
reached Galileo, along with the news
that the Dominican had gone to Rome
to denounce him as a heretic. It was
late in the year before Galileo’s health would allow him to make the journey to Rome (against the advice of his
friends), where he hoped to defend himself from any accusations of heresy.

In February 1616, the Qualifiers, a commission of theologians, reviewed the dispute and delivered a unanimous
report finding that heliocentrism was “foolish and absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical since it explicitly
contradicts in many places the sense of the Holy Scripture.” The next day, Pope Paul V ordered that the report
be delivered to Galileo along with the command to abandon his heliocentric beliefs or the church would take
stronger actions against him. Despite his objections, Galileo accepted the result, but his reputation had suffered
a major blow and heleocentrism was formally condemned as heresy.

In 1623, Urban VIII, an admirer of Galileo, was appointed Pope. After his succession to the Papacy, however,
Urban was accused by the Spanish Inquisition of being too close to heretical figures like Galileo and too soft on
defending the church. Partially to defend himself against this charge, Urban asked Galileo to present arguments
for and against heliocentrism—including Urban’s own views—in a book Galileo was planning.

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In this nineteenth-century illustration, Galileo faces the Inquisition in Rome. He was convicted of heresy in 1633—a conviction that
was not annulled until 1992.

In 1632, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems was published to immediate public acclaim.
Galileo, however, had gone too far. The book was written as a conversation between a scientist and avowed
heliocentrist named Salviati and an intellectually inept philosopher named Simplicio (in Italian, “simpleton”).
Pope Urban’s arguments against heliocentrism were presented in the form of Simplicio’s dialogue and were
ridiculed and systematically refuted by Salviati.

As you can imagine, the Pope was none too pleased. Within months of its publication, Urban banned the sale
of the Dialogue and sent the text to a special commission for review. Fearing the loss of the Pope’s good graces,
many of Galileo’s defenders in Rome abandoned him and, in 1633, the astronomer was ordered to the city to
stand trial on suspicion of heresy.

On June 22, after a cursory trial, Galileo was found “vehemently suspect of heresy” and required to “abjure,
curse, and detest” his heliocentric opinions. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but the next day the
sentence was commuted to house arrest, which remained in effect until Galileo’s death. Dialogue was formally
banned, and publication of Galileo’s works forbidden for all time. Legend has it that upon hearing the sentence,
Galileo muttered the words “eppur si muove”—and yet it moves.

the history of oUr sUn 123

 who
invented the
telescope?
Who invented the telescope has been a
controversial subject since the seventeenth
century. The Dutch lensmaker Hans Lippershey
is credited with designing the first working optical
telescope. Lippershey was in the lens-making
business, an industry that had its genesis with the
invention of spectacles in thirteenth-century Italy.

According to one story, Lippershey was watching

An 1863 wood engraving depicts the moment Hans Lippershey two children playing with lenses in his shop and
gets his idea for a telescope while observing two children playing observed that they could make a faraway weather
with lenses in his shop. vane appear closer by looking through two lenses.
Whether inspired by children or something else,
Lippershey’s first telescope, which was called
a “Dutch perspective glass,” used two convex
lenses to magnify images to three times their
size. Lippershey applied to the States-General of
the Netherlands for a patent on his instrument in
1608, beating another Dutchman, Jacob Metius,
by only a few weeks.

Because there were competing patent claims,

Lippershey’s application was denied. However, at
the time, the Dutch Protestants were at war with the
Catholic Spaniards. Believing Lippershey’s invention
might help in the struggle, the States-General paid
him handsomely to construct several of the devices.
Afterward, the secret of Lippershey’s invention was
leaked to the world, leaving no practical way for the
lens-maker to claim exclusive rights to his design.

Although Lippershey is most often credited with

inventing the telescope, there is some documentary
evidence that an Englishman was using a working
telescope over 40 years earlier. In the preface to
his 1571 book Pantometria, Thomas Digges, son of
the English mathematician and surveyor Leonard
Digges, described a device his father had used
sometime between 1540 and 1554:

My father, by his continual, painstaking

Thomas Digges added this diagram of a heliocentric universe as practices, assisted with demonstrations
an appendix to the 1576 edition A Prognostication Everlasting, Mathematical, was able, and sundry times
by his father, Leonard Digges. hath by proportional Glasses duly situated
in convenient angles, not only discovered

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Galileo presents his telescope to Doge Leonardo Donato in this painting by Henri-Julien Detouche.

things far off, read letters, numbered pieces of money with the very coin and superscription
thereof, cast by some of his friends of purpose upon downs in open fields, but also seven miles
off declared what hath been done at that instant in private places.

Thomas’s writings suggest that Leonard Digges may have created a rudimentary instrument incorporating
lenses and a concave mirror. However, if he did, the device was lost after the senior Digges took part in an
unsuccessful rebellion in 1554 against England’s Catholic Queen Mary, for which he was condemned to death.
He only escaped the gallows by forfeiting all of his estates to the crown.

No matter who invented the telescope, the first commercial versions came to market in the Netherlands.
Generally, they were composed of a convex and a concave lens together so that the reflected images would not
appear inverted. (Try looking at your reflection in a shiny spoon and you will soon see the problem with using
only concave lenses.)

In June 1609, Galileo was in Venice when he heard about the new Dutch perspective glasses and their ability
to make distant objects appear larger and closer. According to Galileo, upon returning to his home in Padua, he
took less than 24 hours to construct his first telescope by fitting a convex lens at one end of a lead tube and a
concave lens at the other. A few days later, he completed construction of an even better design, which he took
to Venice and presented to Leonardo Donato, the city’s chief magistrate. Donato presented it to the city’s senate,
which was so impressed it doubled Galileo’s salary and gave him a lifetime position at the University of Padua.

the history of oUr sUn 125

Johannes Kepler, a German mathematician,
analyzed the optics of telescopes
mathematically in his 1611 book Dioptrice.
Kepler determined that using two convex
lenses at precise angles would greatly
improve magnification but not solve the
inverted image problem. Kepler, however,
never actually constructed a telescope
using this design. It was not until around
1630, when the German Jesuit priest and
astronomer Christoph Scheiner constructed
a telescope using Kepler’s design, that
the mathematician’s theory was proven in
practice. From then on, Kepler’s double-
convex design became all the rage.

In 1609–10, Galileo made these two telescopes, now in the Galileo

Museum in Florence, Italy.

Although the thought of using curved

mirrors to create images was known since
the fourth century BCE, the earliest known
reflecting telescope was not completed until
1668, when Sir Isaac Newton created an
instrument using two mirrors made from
The second model of an alloy of tin and copper. The first mirror
Isaac Newton’s reflecting reflected an image on a secondary diagonal
telescope, built in 1671. mirror near the primary mirror’s focus point.
This secondary mirror then reflected the
image at a 90-degree angle to an eyepiece
mounted on the side of the telescope. To
this day, we call these types of devices
Newtonian telescopes.

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 spectroscopy: shedding
light on the movement and
composition of stars
We have never sent a probe into the Sun. We haven’t even come close. If all goes as planned, however, in 2018,
NASA will launch Solar Probe Plus, a spacecraft that will come closer to the Sun without vaporizing than any
previous human-made object. Even with the most sophisticated heat shielding ever devised, Solar Probe Plus
will still need to stay 5.9 million kilometers (3.67 million miles) away from the Sun’s chromosphere if it’s to be of
any use.

Since we have never been to the Sun and can’t get close enough to take samples of solar material, you are
probably wondering how we can say with any certainty that it is made mostly of hydrogen and helium rather
than, say, ice. (If you think that notion is just silly, consider the book that a scientist and theologian named
Charles Palmer published in 1798 with the lengthy title A Treatise on the Sublime Science of Heliography,
Satisfactorily Demonstrating that Our Great Orb, the Sun, to be Absolutely No Other than a Body of Ice.
Palmer’s theory was that the Sun was a kind of giant comet in the shape of a lens that focused God’s energy
on the Earth.) The answer is that, through a series of fortunate events, scientists stumbled upon some quirky
characteristics of light that tell us an awful lot about where it came from. In fact, in turns out that photons
of light are little packets of information, which, if
manipulated in just the right way, will reveal the
composition and movement of the stars, including
our Sun, that created them.

movement
Have you ever listened to an ambulance rushing a
patient to the hospital? As it gets closer and closer to
you, its siren grows higher and higher in pitch until it
races past you. Then the siren creeps lower and lower
in pitch until the ambulance is out of hearing distance.
This phenomenon is known as the Doppler effect,
after the Austrian physicist Christian Doppler who first
explained it in 1842. The Doppler effect is due to the
compression and expansion of sound waves relative
to the position of the listener. As the ambulance
races toward you, the sound waves from its siren
are compressed together. Your ears hear the shorter
distance between the waves as a higher pitch. Then,
as the ambulance speeds past, the sound waves from
the siren are stretched farther and farther apart. As An 1830 lithograph portrait of Christian Doppler
the distance between the waves grows, your ears hear
them as a lower pitch.

Doppler correctly predicted that the effect should be produced by all waves, including light from distant stars.
If a star were moving closer to the Earth, it should compress the light “waves” seen by someone standing on
the planet. But how could such a distortion be detected? The answer lies in spectroscopy, the study of the
interaction between matter and the energy it radiates.

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 spectroscopy

spectral signatUre

Hydrogen
White light
Infrared
Light splits
Helium

Red
Orange Lithium

Yellow

Visible light Green Oxygen

Blue

Indigo Carbon
Violet

Nitrogen

Ultraviolet

composition

In 1835, the English scientist and inventor of the microphone, Charles Wheatstone, first observed that metals
gave off different colors when sparked and could be distinguished by the differences in the spectrum of
electromagnetic radiation they emitted. When the electrons in atoms are excited—say, by heating them—the
energy they absorb pushes the electrons within each atom into higher energy orbits. When the electrons leave
their excited state, they fall back down to a lower energy orbit and release the excess energy in the form of
photons. The wavelength (or frequency) of these emitted photons forms the emissions spectrum of the heated
element. Every material will emit photons at different frequencies.

In 1854, David Alter, an American physicist, published “On Certain Physical Properties of Light Produced
by the Combustion of Different Metals in an Electric Spark Refracted by a Prism,” an article that identified
the emissions spectra of twelve different metals. Alter speculated that spectrum analysis could be used in
astronomy to detect the elements within shooting stars and luminous meteors. A few years after Alter’s article
was published, the English astronomer Sir William Huggins and his wife, Margaret, used this method to
determine that stars were composed of some of the same elements found on Earth.

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 lines and colors

Sometime in 1802, an English chemist named William H. Wollaston was observing sunlight through a prism
and stumbled upon a curious phenomenon. Attempting to create a clearer image, he first let the sunlight pass
through a narrow slit in a piece of metal. What appeared were several thin black vertical lines at various points
along the resulting spectrum. Wollaston described them as “divisions between the colors,” even though the
lines did not fall neatly between the colors at all. The truth was that the solar spectrum had always appeared as
a continuum, one color blending into another without clear division.

Joseph von Fraunhofer’s diagram of the lines of the spectrum, which appeared when he focused sunlight from a telescope through prisms.

About a decade later, a German optician, Joseph von Fraunhofer, was experimenting with various lenses and
prisms in an attempt to produce a way of projecting light that was completely smooth. Instead, he found that
passing the light through a narrow slit and then through a set of prisms produced a spectrum with dozens of
sharp black vertical lines. Through minor tweaks in the configuration of the prisms, he was able to produce a
spectrum with 574 of these fixed lines. Cleverly, he named them using letters and numbers (A, B, C1, C2, C3,
and so on) starting at the red end of the spectrum. For decades, no one would understand what caused the
lines. Yet from that day forward, they would be known as Fraunhofer lines.

In 1859, two professors at the University of Heidelberg, Gustav Kirchoff and Robert Bunsen (who designed the
eponymous burner), were—for science or pure entertainment—heating various elements until they glowed and
observing the light after it passed through a narrow slit and then a prism. The aspiring pyromaniacs observed
that the colors produced by the prism were entirely different from the colors they observed with the naked eye.
For example, when the professors burned mercury they saw an eerie blue glow, but what appeared through
the prism was a spectrum of violet, green, and yellow. They surmised correctly that the color they observed
with their eyes was a mishmash of the three colors produced by the spectrum. The spectroscope, it turns out,
allowed them to view the true colors emitted by whatever element they heated.

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What’s more, Kirchhoff and Bunsen noticed that
every element always emitted the same pattern of
color, its own unique signature made of light. By
burning any substance and viewing the resulting
light through the spectroscope, they could determine
exactly what elements the substance contained. After
experimenting with the process for nearly a year, the
two decided to try the spectroscope on the Sun. What
they found was a spectrum with the same inexplicable
black lines that Fraunhofer had labeled years earlier.
Only this time, they figured out what the lines meant.
Bunsen excitedly described their discovery in a letter
to a friend:

At present, Kirchhoff and I are engaged in

an investigation that doesn’t let us sleep.
Kirchhoff has made a wonderful, entirely
unexpected discovery in finding the cause of
the dark lines in the solar spectrum, and he
can . . . produce them [in the laboratory] and
in the same position as the corresponding
Fraunhofer lines. Thus a means has been
found to determine the composition of the
Sun and the fixed stars.
A photograph of Gustav Kirchhoff (left)
In the course of burning various substances and and Robert Bunsen (center) with the English
viewing them through a crude spectroscope, chemist Sir Henry Roscoe
Bunsen later observed blue spectral lines never seen
previously. He deduced that the lines must indicate
the existence of a previously unknown element.
In the spring of 1860, he was able to isolate the
element and named it caesium, the Latin word for
“deep blue.” In 1861, Bunsen used this new process
of spectral analysis to discover rubidium, which is
derived from the Latin word for “deep red.”

A spectroscope of the type used by Gustav Kirchhoff and

Robert Bunsen

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 red shift / blUe shift

Just as Doppler predicted, when we observe light emanating from a star that is moving
away from us, its wavelengths will be stretched out. This has the effect of moving the
light’s radiation signature toward the red end of the electromagnetic spectrum because
infrared waves are longer than visible light waves. Consequently, scientists refer to this
phenomenon as red shift. Similarly, when we observe light emanating from a star that
is moving toward us, its wavelengths will be compressed. This moves its radiation
signature toward the blue end of the spectrum because ultraviolet waves are
shorter than visible light waves. As you may have guessed, scientists refer to
this phenomenon as blue shift.

It turns out that those infuriating Fraunhofer lines have a benefit

beyond divulging which elements produced the light. They come in Red shift
handy when determining red shift or blue shift. All you need to do
is compare the spectral signature of an element detected from
the light of the star over time. If the lines are shifted to the right
(toward the infrared end of the spectrum), the star is moving
away from the Earth. If the lines are shifted to the left (toward Blue shift
the ultraviolet end of the spectrum), the star is moving
toward the Earth. Even subtle red shifts and blue shifts
can tell astronomers about the Sun’s movement relative
to the Earth—and reveal the startling fact that the
Sun does move relative to the Earth all the time,
even using a standard astronomical unit.
The star’s radioation signature

Receding star (Red Shift)

Approaching star (Blue Shift)

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Two of the observatories at the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii

modern telescopes
Not much about the telescope changed for over 220 years after Sir Isaac Newton used a combination of mirrors
in his 1668 design. But, as with many things, the dawn of the twentieth century ushered in major changes. In
the 1910s, George Willis Ritchey, an American astronomer, teamed with Henri Chrétien, a French astronomer,
to invent an entirely new type of telescope. The Ritchey-Chrétien telescope uses two hyperbolic mirrors rather
than the combination of convex mirrors and lenses associated with more conventional reflecting telescopes.
Today, most professional research telescopes use the Ritchey-Chrétien design.

As telescopes have grown in both size and complexity, scientists have built bigger and more complex
observatories to house them. Usually, these observatories are located far from major urban centers to avoid the
excess, obtrusive artificial light also known as light pollution. Since the mid-twentieth century, an increasing
number of these observatories have been constructed at high altitudes to avoid some of the distortions
associated with light filtered through water vapor in the Earth’s atmosphere. The largest (and most well known)
of these is the Mauna Kea Observatory located near the summit of Mauna Kea volcano on Hawaii’s Big Island.
Although it is not the highest, Mauna Kea produces the best optical images of any ground-based observatory.
The world’s highest observatory is the University of Tokyo’s Atacama Observatory, located atop a remote
mountain in Chile’s Atacama Desert at an altitude of 5,640 meters (18,500 feet).

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the first giant telescope

In 1892, François Deloncle, a member of the French Chamber of Deputies, commissioned the
construction of a giant telescope as the centerpiece of the Paris Universal Exposition in 1900. It
was to be the largest refracting telescope yet constructed, with a lens 1.25 meters (over 4 feet) in
diameter and a focal length of 57 meters (over 187 feet), all affixed within a cast-iron tube nearly
60 meters (197 feet) long. Due to its immense size, the telescope had to be mounted in a fixed
horizontal position and light from the sky redirected using a movable plane, or siderostat, mirror
nearly 2 meters (6.5 feet) in diameter, which would take nine months to grind.

Although the telescope was not intended for scientific use, it could produce images of 500x
magnification and more. The French astronomer Charles Le Morvan used it to take several
photographs of the surface of the Moon that astonished the readers of Strand Magazine, which
published the photos in the November 1900 issue.

Unfortunately, its immense size and virtual immobility made the Great Paris Exposition Telescope a
hard sell. After the Expo, the company that had built it declared bankruptcy and put the telescope up
for auction in 1909. When they could find no buyer, it was broken up for scrap metal. However, the
2-meter (6-foot) siderostat mirror was salvaged and put on display at the Paris Observatory. And in
2007, two of the telescope’s lenses were discovered in packing crates in the observatory’s basement.

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radio astronomy

In the early 1930s, Karl Jansky, an American physicist and engineer working for Bell Telephone, was
investigating static interference with transatlantic voice transmissions. Jansky recorded a repeating signal that,
based on his calculations, appeared to be coming from the constellation Sagittarius in the densest part of the
Milky Way. In 1933, Jansky published his results in an article for Nature. Shortly thereafter, an amateur radio
operator, Grote Reber, built a parabolic dish in his backyard and conducted the first survey of the sky looking for
high-frequency radio waves. Radio astronomy, the detection of radio waves from astronomical bodies, was born.

Karl Jansky and his radio antenna system in Holmdel,

New Jersey, in the early 1930s

Radio telescopes in the

Karl G. Jansky Very Large
Array in New Mexico

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Radio telescopes differ from optical telescopes in that they look for radiation at wavelengths longer than the
infrared frequency of the electromagnetic spectrum. Many astronomical objects—including the Sun—are
observable not only in visible light, but also by the radio waves they emit.

In 1972, the U.S. Congress approved funds to build an observatory of 27 independent radio antennas, each
measuring 25 meters (82 feet) in diameter, in the desert just outside of Socorro, New Mexico. Six months later,
construction began on the Very Large Array (VLA). Over the next 20 years, the VLA probed the universe and
helped discover cosmological phenomena—like black holes, quasars, and pulsars—that once were merely
theoretical. In 2012, after more than a decade of upgrades, the VLA was renamed the Karl G. Jansky Very Large
Array in honor of the father of radio astronomy. (Despite its depiction in movies like Stanley Kubrick’s 2010 and
Carl Sagan’s Contact, the VLA is not used in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.)

A combined image from the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array and the Hubble Space Telescope captures spectacular jets of energetic
particles shooting out at nearly the speed of light from a supermassive black hole in the core of the Hercules A galaxy.

the history of oUr sUn 135

After its fourth servicing mission, the Hubble Space Telescope drifts away from the space shuttle Atlantis in May 2009.

space-based telescopes
Electromagnetic radiation in the Earth’s atmosphere creates distortions (twinkling) for scientists trying to observe
celestial objects from the surface of the Earth. In a 1946 paper entitled “Astronomical Advantages of an
Extra-terrestrial Observatory,” Lyman Spitzer, an American astrophysicist, first conceived of placing an optical
telescope in outer space to avoid these distortions. He spent much of the rest of his career trying to bring his
idea to fruition. Finally, in 1962, the National Academy of Sciences released a report recommending that the
United States develop a space-based telescope as part of its burgeoning space program. Soon thereafter, Spitzer
was appointed head of a committee to define the scientific objectives of such a project. Despite his efforts,
the European Space Agency would beat the U.S.
by launching the Hipparcos space-based optical
telescope in 1989.

Though Hipparcos was the first space-based optical

telescope, the largest and most versatile is by far
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Had Hubble been
launched in 1983, as originally intended, it would
have beaten Hipparcos by almost six years. But
technical problems, budget overruns, and NASA’s
loss of the Challenger space shuttle in 1986 caused
Hubble to be significantly delayed. When it finally
was launched in 1990, scientists discovered that its
main mirror contained design flaws that distorted
its images. In 1993, NASA shuttle astronauts
performed the first service mission of its kind to
An astronaut removing the Wild Field and Planetary Camera replace and repair Hubble’s components.
from the Hubble Space Telescope before replacing it with a more
powerful instrument during the first servicing mission in 1993.

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Since its repair, Hubble’s detailed images of distant objects have led to major breakthroughs in astronomy and
in our understanding of the universe. Data from Hubble has formed the basis of over 9,000 academic papers
published in peer-reviewed journals. The telescope has helped refine estimates of the age of the universe and
uncovered the remarkable fact that the universe, despite everything we thought we knew about gravity, appears
to be expanding at an accelerated rate.

A three-light-year-tall mountain of gas and dust in the Carina Nebula taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

the history of oUr sUn 137

above: In 2004, the Hubble Space Telescope captured the swirling interstellar dust given off by V838 Monocerotis, the red supergiant
star shining out from the center.

Opposite page: This 2013 image of the Small Magellanic Cloud combines data from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray
Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope.

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An artist’s rendition of the Kepler spacecraft

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In March 2009, even while Hubble continued to
supply an endless catalogue of breathtaking images
of the universe, NASA launched the Kepler Space
Observatory, named in honor of Johannes Kepler,
the seventeenth-century German mathematician,
astronomer, and staunch defender of the Copernican
model. While Hubble was designed to look throughout
the universe, Kepler’s mission is limited to discovering
Earth-like planets orbiting other stars. This task is
not as easy as it might seem. Just as the brilliance
of the Sun obscures objects nearby, it is nearly
impossible (even with Kepler’s advanced optics) to
detect exoplanets, planets outside of our solar system,
by looking for them directly. Instead, Kepler uses
an advanced photometer, a device that measures
brightness, to continuously monitor over 145,000
stars in a fixed field of view. Kepler transmits this data
to Earth where scientists analyze it looking for any
signs of periodic dimming caused by an exoplanet
crossing in front of its host star. As of 2013, Kepler
had, through these tiny variations in brightness,
detected over 2,165 possible exoplanets, 122 of
which have been confirmed.

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 6
The
pOWeR
Of OuR
SuN
Scientists know that plasma in the Sun’s
corona absorbs so much energy that charged
particles escape the Sun’s gravity and fly out
in all directions as a solar wind with speeds
that can exceed 1.6 million kilometers (about
1 million miles) an hour. Only recently have
they discovered the likely cause. Braids of
electromagnetically charged plasma stretching
from the chromosphere to the outer reaches
of the corona release tremendous amounts
of energy as they pull against magnetic field
lines, which are constantly trying to straighten
the braids on the Sun’s surface. The particles
emanate in all directions, including straight
toward Earth.
 the earth’s magnetosphere
Fortunately, Earth produces its own electromagnetic field. Earth’s inner core is a solid sphere of iron-nickel alloy
about 1,220 kilometers (760 miles) in diameter. Its outer core, which is about 2,260 kilometers (1,404 miles)
thick, is mostly the same, except that these electrically conducting metals are in a liquid state at temperatures
up to 6,100 degrees Celsius (over 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit). Just like the Sun’s convection zone, the molten
metal in the Earth’s outer core creates convection currents as heat is transferred outward toward the mantle.
The movement of this liquid metal generates the magnetosphere, an electromagnetic field that extends out from
the surface of the Earth.

Scientists began to understand the power of Earth’s magnetosphere when the first satellites were launched in
the late 1950s. By analyzing data from the satellites, they realized that Earth was surrounded by a belt of highly
charged particles stretching from about 50 to nearly 1,000 kilometers (31 to 620 miles) above the surface, in
an area known as the ionosphere. Scientists realized that the charged particles were being trapped in an area
now called the Van Allen radiation belt by electromagnetic forces emanating from inside the Earth. Essentially,
these particles extended Earth’s magnetic field much farther into space than anticipated.

Magnetosheath

Coronal mass Magnetotail

ejection (CME)

Charged particles
from CME hurtling
toward Earth

Earth’s magnetosphere protects it from the full force of the

solar wind, which flows out from the Sun in all directions. It Magnetic field lines
also helps to deflect blasts of charged particles emitted during
a major solar event like a coronal mass ejection (CME).

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 Outer belt
19,312–40,234 km (12,000–25,000 mi.)

Inner belt
1,609–12,875 km (1,000–8,000 mi.)

The Van Allen Probes are two identical spacecraft that were launched in August 2012 to gather detailed data on the Van Allen radiation belts.

The shape of the Earth’s magnetosphere depends on its alignment with the solar wind. Pressure from the solar
wind compresses the magnetosphere on the side of Earth facing the Sun to a distance of about six times the
radius of the planet. Since Earth has a radius of 6,371 kilometers (3,959 miles), this means its magnetosphere
stretches more than 38,000 kilometers (almost 24,000 miles) out into space. The magnetosphere on the side
facing away from the Sun is dragged away from the Earth as the solar wind wraps around the planet. This effect
creates what is known as the magnetotail, which stretches as far as 1,000 times the Earth’s radius, or some 6.4
million kilometers (almost 4 million miles).

magnetic poles

The Earth’s magnetic field contains lines of electromagnetic charge that dive into the Earth’s surface at the
magnetic North and South Poles. As you probably know, the magnetic poles are not the same as the geographic
North and South Poles. But perhaps you didn’t know that the magnetic poles travel around. Because the molten
metal sloshing about the Earth’s outer core refuses to stay in one place, the magnetic field lines it produces move
along with it. In the last hundred years or so, magnetic north has moved nearly 1,046 kilometers (650 miles).

What is really interesting, however, is that, since 1989, its movement has accelerated from about 8 to over 75
kilometers (5 to 47 miles) a year—or almost 5 meters (about 16 feet) every hour! No one knows for certain what
is causing the acceleration or if the shifting magnetic pole intends to slow down. Even odder, the movement of
Earth’s magnetic South Pole, already some 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) from the geographical South Pole, is
slowing down. While magnetic north is speeding away from geographic north, the movement of magnetic south
has slowed to about 5 kilometers (roughly 3 miles) per year.

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 While over the eastern North Atlantic in March 2012, a
crew member on the International Space Station took this
spectacular photo contrasting the northern lights on the
left with the bright sunrise on the right. The earthly lights
are from cities in Ireland and the United Kingdom.

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 On January 8, 2008, a chance alignment of Earth and Mars allowed NASA scientists to compare how the solar
wind impacts the Earth, which has a protective magnetosphere, and Mars, which does not. The results were
sobering. While the solar wind created similar pressures on each planet, Mars’s atmosphere lost oxygen at ten
times the rate of Earth’s. Over millions of years, the scientists concluded, the solar wind had stripped Mars of its
atmosphere, but the shielding effect of Earth’s magnetosphere protected our atmosphere from a large part of
the Sun’s electromagnetic current.

In 2008, data from NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), a small satellite designed specifically to study
the solar wind, uncovered exactly how this protective mechanism works. Every planet is drained of atmosphere
when the passing solar wind exchanges electrical charges with charged particles surrounding the planet.
Fortunately, in Earth’s case, its magnetosphere ensures that the electrical exchange happens in the outer
reaches of the atmosphere, where air
densities are so low that the interaction of
electric currents is relatively weak, at least
most of the time.

By-products of the current exchange

between the solar wind and the Earth’s
magnetosphere are the spectacular light
displays at each of the Earth’s poles: the
aurora borealis (northern lights) and the
aurora australis (southern lights). The
collision of charged particles high above
the poles creates stunning colors, which
depend on the amount of energy the
atmosphere absorbs.

When energy from the solar wind collides

with ionized atoms in the atmosphere
(usually oxygen or nitrogen), electrons
in the atoms become excited and
momentarily orbit in a higher energy
state. When the electrons return to a less
excited orbit, the atoms release photons
of different wavelengths depending on the
The aurora and underlying atmosphere of Saturn’s north polar region, as nature of the element. Photon emissions
captured in wavelengths of infrared light by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft from oxygen atoms, for example, appear
as green- or rust-colored, while photon
emissions from nitrogen atoms look
blue or red. The mixture of these colors at different levels of the atmosphere (where elements mix in different
proportions) results in a dazzling rainbow display in the night sky.

Usually, these breathtaking light shows are limited to the auroral zones (typically, a ring between 3 and 6
latitudinal degrees thick at about 10 to 20 degrees from the magnetic poles). However, during particularly
powerful magnetic storms (for instance, when a highly charged coronal mass ejection smacks directly into
Earth’s atmosphere), auroras can be seen as far south (or north) as the tropics.

Earth is not the only planet to produce auroras. Jupiter and Saturn both have magnetic fields that are far more
powerful than those on Earth. Jupiter’s magnetic field, for example, is more than 14 times stronger than Earth’s.
NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has taken pictures of massive and thrilling auroras around both planets, as
well as around Uranus and Neptune.

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a hole in the magnetosphere?

On February 17, 2007, NASA launched five identical satellites, each weighing about 129 kilograms (about
285 pounds), into orbit within Earth’s magnetosphere. The Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions
During Substorms (THEMIS) mission was designed to analyze how energy from the magnetosphere is released
during substorms, sudden disturbances in Earth’s magnetic field that send electric charges to the outer edge
of the ionosphere. Later that year, THEMIS discovered that Earth’s upper atmosphere is connected directly
to the Sun’s corona via “ropes” of electromagnetic energy known as Birkeland currents, named for Kristian
Birkeland, the Norwegian scientist who first elucidated the nature of the northern lights in 1908.

But the Birkeland currents were far from THEMIS’s most surprising discovery. On June 3, 2007, sensors
on board all five satellites recorded a wave of charged solar particles streaming into the magnetosphere at a
rate of 10 octillion (that’s 10 followed by 27 zeros) particles per second, far more than normal. Buffeted
by this torrent of particles, high above the poles of the Earth, where the Birkeland currents create conduits
between the Earth’s magnetosphere and the Sun’s corona, the currents suddenly expanded, creating a breach
in the magnetosphere almost four times the size of the Earth itself!

What was most surprising, however, was that a hole was ripped open in the magnetosphere even when
the solar magnetic field and the Earth’s magnetic field were aligned. Scientists had always believed, for
example, that when a gust of northward-oriented solar magnetism came along and slammed into the
Earth’s magnetosphere above the equator (where magnetic field lines also point north), the two fields would
reinforce one another, strengthening that part of the Earth’s magnetic shield against the charged particles
of the solar wind. Instead, THEMIS revealed that northern-aligned magnetic currents could tear holes in
the magnetosphere at the poles, loading the protective layer of the outer atmosphere with tons of charged
plasma and setting up conditions for the perfect solar storm, should a coronal mass ejection or other
disturbance hit the Earth at just the right moment.

An artist’s
concept of
the THEMIS
spacecraft
as they might
appear in orbit.

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Ultraviolet
radiation

Just beyond the violet end of the visible

light spectrum, the wavelength of photons
shortens and the electromagnetic
spectrum enters the ultraviolet (UV)
spectrum. More commonly known as
UV radiation, energy at this end of the
spectrum is most closely associated with
X-rays and, therefore, raises serious
concerns about cancer. The UV end of
the electromagnetic spectrum usually is
subdivided based on the decreasing size of
the wavelengths of energy: near ultraviolet
(400 to 300 nanometers, or nm), middle
ultraviolet (300 to 200 nm), far ultraviolet
(200 to 100 nm), and extreme ultraviolet
(below 100 nm). (For comparison, a In October 2010, a magnetic filament longer than the distance from the
human hair is about 100,000 nanometers Earth to the Moon cut across the Sun’s southern hemisphere. The bright spot
wide.) The wavelengths most likely to just north of the filament’s midpoint is UV radiation from the sunspot where
affect humans are called ultraviolet A the filament appears to be rooted.
(UVA), with wavelengths of 400 to 315
nanometers; ultraviolet B (UVB), with
wavelengths of 315 to 280 nanometers;
and ultraviolet C (UVC), with wavelengths
of 300 to 100 nanometers. Radiation
below 10 nanometers is commonly known
as X-rays.

Cosmic Gamma
rays rays X-rays Ultraviolet Visible Infrared

Vacuum Short-wave UV Middle-wave UV Long-wave UV

UV (UVC) (UVB) (UVA)

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While the Sun emits radiation at all wavelengths, very little of the UV energy that reaches the Earth’s surface
has smaller wavelengths than UVC. In fact, even when the Sun is directly overhead, UV radiation makes up less
than 3% of the total amount of sunlight that hits the Earth. At the very top of our atmosphere, the total amount
of energy absorbed as UV radiation is about 140 watts per square meter (13 watts per square foot). By the
time the light has reached the surface, however, the atmosphere has filtered out more than 75% of that energy.
Every square meter of the Earth’s surface, therefore, is continuously hit with about 34 watts of UV radiation. For
comparison, a typical iPhone charger produces about 5 watts of energy.

Though some exposure to UV radiation can be beneficial, overexposure to UVB radiation can cause serious
sunburn and has been linked to skin cancer. In fact, the incidence of skin cancer varies by altitude and by
latitude. In other words, even on the Earth’s surface, exposure to UV radiation will vary wildly depending on how
close you are to the Sun. Someone living in Virginia or North Carolina has about twice the risk of developing
skin cancer as someone living in Vermont or New Hampshire. The risk doubles again for people living in sunny
Florida or Texas.

The incidence of skin cancer in

the United States has been rising
by about 5% each year. Many
doctors attribute this increase to
the migration of America’s aging
baby boomers to warmer climes—
like Phoenix, Las Vegas, and
Fort Lauderdale—where they are
spending more of their retirement
years playing golf, tanning on the
beach, and generally exposing
themselves to more of the Sun’s
damaging radiation. A 5% annual
increase is serious cause for
concern. Even at the present rates,
nearly 3 men and 1 woman in every
100 will develop melanoma in his or
her lifetime.

UVC radiation, an even more

potent form of energy, can be quite
dangerous, causing the kinds of
damage to human DNA that has
been linked to up to 92% of all
melanomas. In the past, exposure
to UVA radiation was considered
harmless. In 2011, however,
the World Health Organization
classified all wavelengths of UV
radiation (including UVA) as Group
1 carcinogens, the highest and
most dangerous designation for
substances known to cause cancer The rising rate of skin cancer may be due, at least in part, to the number of retired
in humans. baby boomers moving to sunnier climates and spending more time outdoors.

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 Sunscreens help prevent damage
to DNA from UVB radiation. In
fact, sun protection factor (SPF)
levels are also called UVB-PF, for
UVB protection factor. SPF levels
tell consumers virtually nothing,
however, about a sunscreen’s ability
to protect against UVA exposure
(and do not protect against UVC at
all). Unless the sunscreen contains
compounds like titanium oxide, zinc
oxide, or avobenzene, it is doubtful
they offer much protection against
UVA radiation.

The damaging effects of exposure

to UV radiation raises serious health
concerns. But if not for exposure to
UV radiation, life on Earth may not
have evolved into what it is today (or
at all). Many evolutionary biologists
believe that exposure to the Sun’s
UV radiation is what allowed early
forms of life to evolve the kinds of According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, the risk of developing melanoma doubles
reproductive proteins and enzymes for a person who has had sunburn five or more times.
that were necessary to create
life-forms capable of living on the
surface of the planet.

The theory is that, as early

unicellular life-forms rose to the
surface of primordial oceans, they
were exposed to lethal amounts
of UV radiation. (This was long
before the Earth had developed an
ozone layer that helps block out
much of the radiation.) Most of
these organisms died as a result.
The few that survived were those
with genetic mutations that made
them produce special enzymes
capable of overcoming the cellular
disruption caused by exposure to
UV radiation. Survival of the fittest
of these organisms eventually led to
the evolution of organisms capable
of surviving on the surface of the
planet, in full exposure to UV.

Only sunscreens that contain compounds like titanium oxide, zinc oxide, or
avobenzine help protect against UVA as well as UVB radiation.

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 vitamin d: the sUn’s miracle sUpplement

Strictly speaking, vitamin D is not a vitamin at all. Usually the term vitamin is reserved for essential organic
compounds that organisms cannot create on their own but must obtain through their diets. Most mammals,
however, have evolved to synthesize vitamin D when exposed to sunlight. In fact, scientists believe that land-
based animals have been making their own vitamin D since the early Carboniferous period, some 350 million
years ago. Though we have evolved into very different creatures since then, the way our bodies produce vitamin
D has remained largely the same.

In only 30 minutes of whole-body exposure to sunlight, your body can produce more vitamin D through a
photochemical process than most supplements can supply in pill form. When the outermost layer of the skin is
exposed to UVB, a ring of 7-dehydrocholesterol’s elemental structure breaks open to form previtamin D3. This is
then transformed by the skin’s heat into the secosteroid vitamin D3, a precursor to vitamin D.

Carrier proteins in the bloodstream transport the vitamin D3 from the skin to the liver, where special enzymes
convert it to calcifediol. Calcifediol is a biologically inactive substance, a form of stored vitamin D that has the
potential to be converted into active vitamin D. In our bodies, calcifediol is converted to the active form of
vitamin D in two different ways.

Most of the calcifediol goes to the kidneys, where more enzymes convert it into active vitamin D. Then the
kidneys attach the vitamin D to special carrier proteins that help transport the vitamin to organs throughout the
body. There is some evidence that, as it circulates, vitamin D helps regulate the concentration of calcium and
phosphate in the blood, which is
essential for healthy bone growth.

Calcifediol can also be converted

into active vitamin D in
macrophages, special immune
cells that literally “eat” germs in
your body. The microphages use
the vitamin D locally, usually to
reduce inflammation and help the
body defend itself against germs
trying to invade a particular area.

A half-hour of sunbathing can produce

more vitamin D than most daily
supplements.

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 UVB radiation

Skin

7-dehydrocholesterol
HO

Previtamin D3

how the HO
body makes
vitamin d

Vitamin D3
Energy in the form of photons breaks open
the structure of 7-dehydrocholesterol
(a type of cholesterol found in the skin), HO
allowing our bodies to transform it into Vitamin D3 enters
an essential nutrient. the bloodstream

Liver converts
vitamin D3 to calcifediol

OH

Calcifediol

HO

Microphages convert Kidneys convert calcifediol

calcifediol to active vitamin to active vitamin D, which
D, which is used locally to carrier proteins transport to
reduce inflammation organs throughout the body

OH OH

Active vitamin D Active vitamin D

HO OH HO OH

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 Doctors have long regarded vitamin D as beneficial
to human health. Lack of vitamin D can cause
vitamin d osteomalacia (commonly known as rickets), a disease
and aUtism that can lead to softening of the bones and impede
healthy growth, especially in children. Low levels of
Autism is the fastest-growing vitamin D have also been associated with multiple
developmental disability on Earth, sclerosis and some forms of cancer.
with the number of cases growing
by over 1,100% since 1990, Recently, some doctors have extolled the benefits of
according to one California-based vitamin D on the body’s ability to fend off infections
study. Although there is no definitive from influenza and tuberculosis. The Vitamin D Council,
scientific evidence available as a nonprofit educational organization, has suggested
yet, researchers at the Vitamin D that the zeal to prevent UV exposure, coupled with
Council believe these soaring rates an increasingly sedentary culture that prefers staying
are linked to lack of exposure to indoors in front of a computer screen to playing in
sunlight. They point to statistics the sun, is causing chronic deficiencies in naturally
showing higher rates of autism in produced vitamin D. One report from the Centers for
areas with more cloud cover as well Disease Control (CDC) estimated that 90% of infants
as the fact that Black people who in the United States are not getting the recommended
live in higher latitudes and whose amounts of vitamin D.
vitamin D levels are about half
those of Caucasians living in the Scarier still, some studies suggest a link between
same areas have nearly twice the vitamin D deficiency and the growing rates of autism.
rate of autism. But in lower, sunnier In 2010, the National Academy of Sciences issued a
latitudes, where people tend to report raising the recommended daily intake (RDI) of
spend more time outdoors, autism vitamin D to 400 IU (international units, a measure of
among Blacks is rare. vitamin potency) for infants, 600 IU for adults, and 800
IU for the elderly. This boost, although a significant
increase from previous recommendations, was too
conservative for four of the Academy’s physicians, who
resigned in protest. Those physicians felt higher levels
(up to 10,000 IU for adults) were called for.

Whatever the dosage, increasing numbers of studies

support the benefits of steady, naturally produced, and
higher levels of vitamin D. According to Bob Berman,
one of the world’s foremost experts on the Sun, sufficient
exposure to sunlight could prevent as many as 150,000
cancer deaths per year in the United States alone. It
may also reduce infection rates and improve the health
and well-being of millions of people suffering from bone
and cardiovascular diseases.

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 solar power: harnessing
the sUn’s energy
At any given time, about 174,000 terawatts of energy in the form of solar radiation is blanketing the Earth.
Earth’s upper atmosphere reflects about 30% of that energy back into space. Some of it is further reflected
or absorbed by clouds closer to the Earth’s surface. Still, the total amount of solar energy that makes it to the
surface is enormous. Each year, more solar energy reaches the surface of our planet than nearly twice the
energy we can squeeze out of the planet’s entire supply of coal, oil, natural gas, and uranium.

Since prehistoric times, humans have found ways to harness the Sun’s energy for light and heat. But only in
the last hundred years or so have we developed ways of collecting relatively large amounts of solar energy
and converting it to electricity. Several different methods for generating electricity from solar energy have been
developed since humans first discovered that sunlight could power an electric current. But, for all practical
purposes, there are three basic methods of generating large amounts of solar power: solar photovoltaic (PV)
arrays, concentrated solar power (CSP) arrays, and solar power towers.

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 solar photovoltaic arrays

Solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays generate electricity from sunlight using PV cells made of materials whose
electrons become excited in the presence of sunlight and produce an electric current. Today, PV cells are made
mostly from different types of silicon. You may be surprised to learn that pure silicon is not particularly useful in
making PV cells. Instead, manufacturers use a process called “doping” to add certain impurities that make the
silicon more conductive.

Silicon doped with phosphorus or arsenic is called N-type silicon, because those impurities cause the silicon
to have an excess of negatively charged electrons. P-type silicon, which is doped with boron or gallium, has
electron vacancies that create a latticework of positively charged “holes” waiting to be filled with any electrons
that might wander by.

When the two types of silicon are brought into close contact, the free electrons in the N-type silicon rush to
fill the holes in the P-type silicon. The buildup of combined electrons and holes around the P-N junction (the
boundary between the silicon layers) creates an electric field that overlaps the two layers. This electric field acts
as a barrier preventing more free electrons from crossing over from the N side to the P side.

Enter sunlight. When photons of the right wavelength strike the PV cell, their energy is absorbed, splitting
up electron-hole pairs. Though the electric field allows freed electrons to cross from the P side to the N side,
it stops them from moving in the opposite direction. In an effort to reconnect with a hole on the P side, the
electrons will follow an external path. An electrode, or electrical contact, at the front of the N layer, channels the
electrons into a circuit that connects to an electrode on the back of the P layer. This creates an electric current
that, along the way, can be used to power anything from a digital calculator to an entire town.

Dozens of PV cells can be arranged on solar panels. Thousands of solar panels can be arranged into massive
arrays that generate enormous amounts of electricity. In 2012, the U.S. Army installed thousands of solar
panels at the White Sands Missile Range in the middle of the New Mexico desert, creating the world’s largest
low-concentration PV array, generating over four megawatts of electricity. (One megawatt, if it can be sustained,
is about enough electricity to power a large housing development.)

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 how
photovoltaic
cells work

Front electrodes
(contacts)

N-type silicon
e

P-N junction e Electric Field

e
e
P-type silicon

Back electrode (contact) e

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 One of the Vanguard satellites at Cape Canaveral, Florida, in 1958

the invention of photovoltaics

In 1839, Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel, a 19-year-old French prodigy, first demonstrated that light could
create an electric current. Experimenting in his father’s laboratory, Becquerel dipped an electrode into a beaker
filled with a conductive solution and exposed the beaker to sunlight. As fast as you can say “Voilà!” Becquerel
discovered that, indeed, sunlight had the ability to create electrical energy.

Then, in the 1870s, an English electrician named Willoughby Smith was using selenium to test for faults in
underwater telegraph lines for the Gutta Percha Company. Smith noticed that the mineral conducted electricity
very well in sunlight but less so in darkness. He decided to write an article on the subject creatively entitled
“Effect of Light on Selenium During the Passage of an Electric Current,” which the journal Nature published in
its February 1873 issue. Two American scientists—William Adams and Richard Day—read Smith’s article and
started experimenting with light and selenium themselves. Soon, they discovered that sunlight generates a flow of
electricity through the mineral. Eventually the two would author A Substitute for Fuel in Tropical Countries, the first
book on solar energy. Adams and Day even invented a 2.5-horsepower steam engine driven entirely by sunlight.

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 Not long after Adams and Day’s discovery, Charles
Fritts, an American inventor, was experimenting with
selenium in order to create more powerful electric
currents. He put a layer of selenium on a metal plate
coated with gold leaf and found that, when placed
in sunlight, the combination produced much more
electricity, though still not enough to be of much use.
Still, Fritts had invented the first solar photovoltaic
(PV) cell. At the time, however, few took much notice
of his invention.
A backyard pool heated by solar panels in 1965
In 1905, Albert Einstein wrote about the mechanism
of light exciting electrons (the photoelectric effect).
But it took until 1921—when Einstein’s insight won
him the Nobel Prize in physics—for the idea of solar power to really take off. Different manufacturers began
experimenting with using PV cells to power appliances. The first applications, however, weren’t particularly
practical. Though Bell Laboratories manufactured a PV cell in 1954, it was used mostly as an oddity, powering
children’s toys. The power created by the first solar cells was simply too expensive. In relative terms, electricity
generated by these early PV cells cost over 100 times the price of producing the same amount of electricity
using coal.

The design and materials of PV cells would improve with the advent of the space age. There was no practical
way to launch a satellite powered by an internal coal-fired generator. And even with the best batteries, satellites
would run out of energy too quickly to be of much use. The obvious solution was PV cells. By coating the
outside of the satellite with solar panels, satellites could be powered almost indefinitely. So in 1958, the United
States launched the Vanguard 1 satellite, which was covered in PV cells that powered the satellite until 1964,
when its signal was lost. (The Vanguard 1 is the oldest human-made satellite still in orbit.)

In the late 1960s, energy giant Exxon gathered a team of researchers to look at projects that would provide
the energy supplies of the future. The group assumed that electricity from conventional sources would be so
expensive by the year 2000 that the world would be scrambling for cheaper alternatives. One scientist, Elliot
Berman, joined the team in 1969 and suggested using thin layers of silicon as a conductive material to produce
solar power at cheaper costs.

Through much trial and error, the group finally settled on a design that used thin wafers of silicon with
electrodes printed directly onto one surface. By gluing an acrylic covering on the front and a crude circuit board
on the back, the team designed a solar panel that was cheap enough to have a shot at competing against
conventional sources of electricity. Exxon quietly started buying up scrap silicon from other industries and
launched a subsidiary company called Solar Power Corporation (SPC). By 1973, using the design Berman’s
team had developed, SPC was churning out the first commercially available silicon-based solar panels that
could produce electricity for less than $20 per watt, a five-fold decrease in cost over previous designs.

Even at this drastically reduced cost, however, SPC’s solar panels could not compete with the $2 to $3 per
watt cost of electricity generated from coal. But subtle design improvements made over 30 years, coupled with
steadily increasing costs for conventional electricity, turned solar power into a competitive source of energy.
By 2012, over 63 gigawatts of solar power had been installed worldwide, a ten-fold increase over the previous
five years. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), solar PV will represent over 13% of all the new
electricity capacity installed by 2035.

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concentrated solar power

According to a famous legend, Archimedes, the Greek

mathematician and inventor, used mirrors to concentrate sunlight
on a fleet of Roman ships invading the city of Syracuse in 214 BCE.
Before long, the ships burst into flame. Although there is much
debate about whether Archimedes’ famous “heat ray” actually
worked, a 1973 experiment by a Greek scientist proved it was
possible to burn a plywood ship covered in tar with the concentrated
light of 70 copper-coated mirrors. In Archimedes’ day, it was not
uncommon for ships to be covered with a thin coating of tar to A 1642 engraving reimagining the mirror
help keep them waterproof. Archimedes used to focus sunlight on and burn
the Roman fleet attacking Syracuse in 214 BCE
Whether the story about Archimedes is truth or myth, it is
certainly true that sunlight can be focused to create enormous
amounts of heat. Concentrated solar power (CSP) uses mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large amount of solar
energy onto a small area. This concentration creates heat, which is then used to turn a turbine, just like in a
conventional thermoelectric generator.

The most common CSP configuration uses parabolic troughs coated on the inside with reflective material. The
troughs concentrate sunlight onto a tube positioned along a focal line a few feet away. Inside the tube, a special
fluid (usually some form of molten salt) is continuously heated until it reaches temperatures up to 350 degrees
Celsius (over 660 degrees Fahrenheit). The fluid flows through the tubes and is used to generate pressurized
steam that is then forced through a turbine. As magnets on the turbine spin, they generate an electromagnetic
current that is transmitted through wires as electricity.

Often called solar-thermal generation, commercially available CSP components were first manufactured in the
United States in 1984. Since then, almost two gigawatts of CSP capacity has been installed worldwide. However,
as cheaper designs and materials have become available, CSP is expected to become a growing source of
electricity. One study by Greenpeace International and the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association
(ESTELA) projects that, by 2050, more than 1,500 gigawatts of CSP will be installed, supplying as much as
25% of global electricity demand at that time.

A parabolic trough CSP system

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solar power tower

Solar power towers, also known as heliostat power plants, are really a type of concentrated solar power. Rather
than using mirrored troughs to focus sunlight on a liquid-filled tube close to the mirror, a power tower uses an
array of flat mirrors called heliostats to focus sunlight on a central collection tower. A fluid (usually some form of
molten salt) in the tower is used to collect the energy and generate steam with temperatures up to 500 degrees
Celsius (over 930 degrees Fahrenheit). The superheated steam is used to drive turbines just like in any other
CSP (or thermoelectric) plant.

In 2009, Abengoa Solar, a Spanish company, began operation of the world’s largest solar power tower near
Seville. The PS20 tower can generate up to 20 megawatts of electricity to power nearly 10,000 homes. In
2013, however, Google, NRG Energy, and BrightSource Energy are set to begin operating a massive solar tower
complex in California’s Mojave Desert that will generate up to 377 megawatts of electricity, enough to power
140,000 homes. The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System will use over 170,000 heliostats to concentrate
sunlight onto a 450-foot central tower, the tallest solar power structure ever built.

The PS20 solar power tower near Seville, Spain

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A solar furnace uses concentrated solar energy to produce superhigh
temperatures for industrial uses, though usually not to produce electricity.
The furnace in Odeillo, France, uses 63 mirrors (lower right) that track the
sun and redirect sunlight toward a 2,000-square-meter (21,528-square-
foot) parabolic reflector consisting of 9,500 curved panes of mirrored glass.
The reflector concentrates the beams of light onto a focal point, producing
temperatures of more than 3,000 degrees Celsius (5,432 degrees Fahrenheit).
 power over power:
the perfect solar storm
Coronal mass ejections have the potential to inflict massive damage on the modern electricity infrastructure.
A large CME can contain billions of tons of highly charged solar plasma traveling at breakneck speed. As
these charged particles slam into Earth’s magnetosphere, they can create massive electric currents that follow
Earth’s horizontally oriented magnetic field lines all the way from the upper atmosphere into the surface of the
planet. Electrical charges always want to move from areas of high voltage to areas of lower voltage. High-voltage
transmission lines, therefore, act almost like antennas, attracting electromagnetic currents like a drain attracts
water. They also tend to be north-south oriented and, therefore, contain multiple points along the lines where
storm-induced currents can jump from the ground into the grid, frying wires and components as they rush
toward points of lower voltage.

For two days in February 2010, senior government officials of the United States, Sweden, and the European
Union, along with a handful of specially selected representatives from the private sector, gathered quietly in a
conference room in Boulder, Colorado. They had been called together by the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to run a simulation: what would happen if,
right at that moment, the North American power grid were suddenly struck by a severe solar storm?

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The results were frightening. According to the world’s best experts, the storm would spark cascading power
outages throughout the eastern and mid-Atlantic states and large parts of eastern Canada within the first hour.
Power stations across the Northern Hemisphere would begin reporting transformer failures. Lacking backup
transformers (and with virtually no North American transformer manufacturers), repairs and replacements
would take several weeks to several months. The simulators estimated that emergency response personnel
would face critical infrastructure failures within the first few days as water distribution, sewage, medical
care, phone service, and fuel supply systems ground to a halt. Loss of cellular communications and Global
Positioning System (GPS) would impair financial systems and severely delay response and recovery. Utility
workers in affected areas would soon abandon their posts to provide for their families, as civil society collapsed
around them.

It would be easy to dismiss this dire scenario as fiction, a kind of postapocalyptic fantasy that is more the stuff
of zombie films than public policy. But the findings of this group of world experts were credible enough to
compel Britain’s chief science advisor to warn at the time that a severe solar storm would be a “global Katrina,”
lasting for several years and costing the world’s economies as much as $2 trillion.

impact of severe solar

storm on U .s . high-voltage
transformers

High-voltage transmission lines

Magnitude of induced electromagnetic currents

Likely areas of power-system collapse

the power of oUr sUn 167

transformer vUlnerability

The scariest part of FEMA’s 2010

solar storm scenario was how a large
coronal mass ejection would destroy
critical high-voltage transformers.
When they are saturated with
current, transformer cores, which are
essentially big magnets, heat up and
the internal components literally melt.
Extra-high voltage (EHV) transformers
(the kinds used on long transmission
lines delivering power from, say,
Quebec to New York City), introduce
an additional concern. Their design
actually compounds the effects of
storm-induced currents, causing them
to become saturated with current more
quickly than transformers used on low-
voltage portions of the electricity grid.

An earlier solar storm simulation

conducted in 2007 found that an
especially strong CME would damage
up to 350 EHV transformers beyond
repair. At the time, those 350
transformers represented over 97%
of all the EHV transformers in New
Hampshire, 82% in New Jersey, 72%
in Oregon, 40% in Washington, and
between 24% and 75% of all EHV
transformers in every state along the
east coast of the United States, from
South Carolina to Maine.

Nearly all transformers are

manufactured outside North America.
Even under normal conditions,
replacing an EHV transformer can
take up to 24 months and cost more
than $10 million. Moreover, each
transformer (even from the same
manufacturer) can contain subtle
design variations, complicating efforts
to replace several at once. Loss of
these transformers could cause
wide-scale damage, collapsing power
systems in highly populated areas of
the mid-Atlantic and Pacific Northwest An extra-high voltage transformer
for several years.

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the
carrington
event
In the nineteenth century,
Richard Carrington was one
of England’s foremost solar
astronomers. He charted
sunspot activity by using his
telescope to project
an 11-inch-wide image
of the Sun onto a screen
and painstakingly drew While observing sunspots, Richard Carrington witnessed “two patches of intensely
what he observed. On bright and white light” (points A and B). He observed the light rapidly expand
the morning of September and then fade, noting that “The last traces were at C and D, the patches having
1, 1859, Carrington was travelled considerably from their first position and vanishing as two rapidly fading
sketching an enormous dots of white light.”
group of sunspots when
suddenly two brilliant
beads of blinding white light appeared over where the spots had been. As he watched, the beads
intensified and then gradually shrank to pinpoints until they finally disappeared.

Just before dawn the next day, the skies erupted in auroras so brilliant they could be seen as far
south as El Salvador and the Bahamas. Though electrical transmission was not yet widespread,
telegraph systems were—and they went haywire around the world, shocking startled telegraph
operators and setting brush fires in some arid regions of the southwestern United States. Even after
disconnecting the batteries used to power the lines, many operators could continue to transmit
messages for several hours.

What Carrington had witnessed was the second largest coronal mass ejection ever recorded, a solar
storm so powerful that New Yorkers could read their newspapers at midnight by the light of the aurora
it created as charged particles from the Sun crashed into the Earth’s magnetosphere. The storm was
named the Carrington Event after the astronomer correctly deduced that it originated from the solar
activity he had witnessed the day before. In 2008, the National Academy of Sciences predicted that if
a storm the size of the Carrington Event struck today, it would cause up to $2 trillion in damages and
would take 4 to 10 years to repair.

the power of oUr sUn 169

Scientists have long known that coronal mass ejections are associated with tightly
wound magnetic flux ropes. What they didn’t know was which came first, the CME
or the flux ropes. On July 18, 2012, NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured a
small solar flare that produced magnetic flux ropes that twisted into figure eights.
About eight hours later, another flare erupted from the same place. This time, the
flux ropes snapped apart, sending tons of solar material into space in a classic
CME—and providing solid evidence that twisted flux ropes precede CMEs.

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 Charged solar
particles
re
tosphe
M agne
Destroy spacecraft
electronics Disrupt GPS
signals
SDO

here Communications
p
Ionos satellite

Interfere with radio

communications and avionics
cme
impacts on
electronics

Fry transmission
grids

Interrupt connectivity
of fiber-optic cables

the sUn and modern electronics

Almost all modern electronics would be vulnerable to very large coronal mass ejections. This is because many
modern electronics depend on circuit boards or tiny computer chips with copper wiring that may conduct radiant
electromagnetic energy during a solar storm. A particularly large CME could produce geomagnetic currents
strong enough to burn circuitry with a jolt of electric current. Just about anything—from high-end dishwashers to
electronic car ignitions—could be affected.

During a solar storm, it is not just electrical transmission lines that can be damaged. Coaxial cable for television
and (increasingly) Internet connections may be vulnerable as well. Solar storms can create varying magnetic fields
and induce voltage spikes in the center of the cable, causing an increase or decrease in voltage from the cable’s

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 power supply. These voltage spikes can overload the electricity on the cable system and knock out components
connected to the line. Even fiber-optic cables may be at risk since many still require metallic (and conductive)
wires that run along the length of the line and provide electricity to the amplifiers needed to boost signal strength.

Solar storms can also cause serious damage to Earth-orbiting satellites, especially those in geosynchronous
orbits, which tend to be farther from the protection of Earth’s magnetosphere. (A geosynchronous orbit is
a high-altitude orbit that matches Earth’s rotation, allowing satellites to remain directly over one spot on the
planet.) Many communications satellites are put in geosynchronous orbit and can suffer damage during a solar
storm. High-energy particles can damage electrical components on or within the satellites. But even satellites
with some form of protection can be damaged when charged particles bombard the shielding, building up an
electrical charge that eventually discharges into the internal components.

Disruption of satellite services can affect major news

wire-service feeds, network television, weather data,
cell-phone service, ATMs, airline tracking systems, and
critical military communications. Satellites in the Global
Positioning System (GPS) may be particularly at risk.
Magnetic currents produced during a solar storm can
generate field distortions and produce erroneous compass
readings. Many GPS satellites depend on attitude control
systems that make fine adjustments to orient the satellites
based on the position of Earth’s magnetic poles.

These dire consequences are precisely why many

governments have made monitoring and forecasting
solar activity new national priorities. At the U.S. National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space
Weather Prediction Center, a team of space weather
forecasters continuously monitor data from ground- and
space-based sensors looking for anomalies that might
indicate a large CME was on its way toward Earth.
With enough warning time, they can alert vulnerable
industries so satellite operations can be adjusted and
power grids reconfigured to minimize disruption.

Individuals can minimize the impact of severe solar

storms by making a few preparations. If possible, have
a source of off-grid backup power (a gas generator, Although not caused by a CME, a widespread blackout in
solar panels, or a small-scale wind turbine) to provide August 2003 gave a preview of what might happen after a
electricity should central electrical service be impacted. severe solar storm. In New York City, mass transportation
Have an emergency pack ready, with flashlights, came to a standstill.
batteries, nonperishable food, and bottled water as well
as a short-term supply of cash (since credit card and
ATM systems could be out for an extended period). Connect your electronic devices to an uninterruptible power
supply (UPS), which looks like a standard surge protector but is equipped with batteries that keep computers,
cell phones, and other electronics running smoothly during major power fluctuations. This will ensure that, even
if you cannot use the electronics until power and cable services are restored, they will not be damaged during
initial CME impacts.

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the QUebec blackoUt
Since the advent of the modern electricity grid, the most famous solar storm was a geomagnetic storm
that struck Canada in March 1989. At 2:44 a.m. on March 13, 1989, a large energy jolt in the Earth’s
magnetic field pulsed along the U.S.–Canadian border. Currents induced by a coronal mass ejection
had created huge differences in voltages at different points in the high-voltage transmission network
spanning the border. Because voltage asymmetries reached 15%, equipment designed to protect the
grid from voltage spikes began to shut down parts of the system. Voltage dropped so precipitously
between five high-voltage lines in the La Grande transmission network that it separated from the Hydro-
Quebec grid to avoid being fried.

Almost immediately, over nine gigawatts of electricity being pumped into the Quebec grid evaporated.
Protective controls near large cities were designed to handle electrical spikes, but not to recover from
such an enormous loss of electricity. Within 25 seconds, as various portions of the grid shut down to
protect themselves from huge voltage fluctuations, the entire network collapsed, leaving millions of
people without electricity for the next nine hours.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ranked the 1989 storm the third largest
recorded since rankings began in 1932. Until recently, many experts in the electricity sector believed
solar storms of that size represented the worst-case scenario for the North American bulk power grid.
But an analysis of historical data has revealed that the northern latitudes have had near misses from
storms roughly four times larger on at least three occasions since 1972.

If there were before-and-after satellite photographs of the 1989 Quebec blackout, they may have looked something like these.
The photo on the left was taken about 20 hours before a massive blackout on August 14, 2003. The photo on the right was
taken several hours later, when much of southeastern Canada and the northeastern United States were still without power.

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transpolar flight

During the Cold War, the Arctic zone provided a military buffer between the United States and the Soviet
Union. As a result, there were few civilian transpolar flights. When hostilities diminished with the breakup of the
Soviet Union in the late 1980s, however, both sides became less concerned about a transpolar attack. Airlines
realized that flying over the poles rather than along the lower latitudes could dramatically reduce flight distances
and save fuel, especially for routes between the United States and Asian cities like Beijing, Hong Kong, and
Singapore. For example, Emirates Airlines estimates that it saves about 2,000 gallons of fuel by routing its Dubai
to San Francisco flight over the North Pole. And it is not alone.

)
(8,763 mi.
14,103 km

New York

Dubai Save
s Chicago
(664 about 1
(2,00 i.) and ,069 km
m
0 ga
llons 7,571 l
) in f North
uel
Pole

13,0
34 k
m (8
,099
mi.)

San
Beijing Francisco

Hong
Kong
Tokyo

By 2008, United Airlines scheduled over 1,400 trans-Arctic flights, including its daily runs between Chicago
and Hong Kong and Chicago and Beijing. Other U.S. airlines fly daily routes over the Arctic, including Northwest
Airlines, which has four transpolar flights weekly between Detroit and Beijing. Only one airline—Qantas—flies a
route over the South Pole, making five weekly flights between Sydney and Buenos Aires.

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 Somewhere above 82 degrees latitude north (or below 82
degrees south), most transpolar flights lose line-of-sight with
communications satellites and have to switch to high-frequency
(HF) radio communications. Some solar storms can cause
disturbances in the ionosphere that disrupt HF radio signals,
endangering the airplanes. For example, charged particles
from the Sun may penetrate the ionosphere and absorb radio
frequencies, causing communications to fade out. Some solar
flares (particularly those within the frequency of X-rays) can also
cause HF radio fadeouts on the sunward side of the Earth.

Because of their reliance on HF radio communications, airlines

alerted to impending solar storms must divert transpolar flights
to conventional routes. During a particularly strong solar storm
in January 2012, Delta, Qantas, and Air Canada had to reroute
transpolar flights between the United States and Asia. Fortunately,
the airlines knew a solar storm was on its way. Without warning
from the NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center, these
transpolar flights could have unexpectedly experienced a loss in
radio communications and severe (and dangerous) navigational
system errors.

the solar cycle

In 1826, the German pharmacist-turned-astronomer Samuel
Heinrich Schwabe had an odd theory that a planet, which he
tentatively named Vulcan, existed closer to the Sun than Mercury.
Schwabe thought that the best way to discover this planet would
be to look for its shadow as it passed between the Earth and the
Sun. Fortunately for us, Schwabe’s kooky theory motivated him
to make precise observations of sunspots nearly every day for 17
years. Schwabe never found Vulcan, but he did notice that the
number of sunspots seemed to vary over time and published a
paper to that effect in 1843.

Schwabe’s paper attracted the notice of Swiss astronomer and

mathematician Rudolf Wolf. Wolf was so determined to verify
period variations in sunspots that he gathered all of the data
collected on them since astronomers had begun to observe them
with telescopes in the seventeenth century. But to define sunspot
activity over time, Wolf needed to devise a standard unit. So he
created a formula that accounted for the number of sunspots,
the number of sunspot groups, and minor variations in observed
A beautiful view of a coronal mass ejection on activity because of location or instrumentation used to record
May 1, 2013, as it lifted off the surface of the the activity. The result was what is known as the Wolf number, a
Sun before blasting off into space. standard measure of sunspot activity still used today.

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 After reconstructing all of the data he could find on sunspots as far back as 1610, Wolf used his calculation to
determine that sunspots followed a cycle of about 5.5 years of increasing activity followed by about 5.5 years of
decreasing activity, completing one solar cycle every 11.1 years. Recent research has revealed a more precise
calculation of 10.66 years, but most people refer simply to an 11-year solar cycle. The period of increasing solar
activity is known as solar maximum, while the period of decreasing solar activity is known as solar minimum.

Once scientists could identify the periodic cycle of solar activity, they were able to notice patterns in solar
cycles. For example, evaluation of the available data revealed that particularly strong solar maximums tended to
take less time to peak than weaker solar maximums, a phenomenon known as the Waldmeier effect. Recently,
many astronomers have questioned whether the Waldmeier effect is real or a by-product of how Wolf defined a
sunspot. Some scientists also suggest that the strength of solar cycles themselves wax and wane over a period
of about 90 years, known as the Gleissberg cycle.

Yearly Averaged Sunspot Numbers 1610–2010

200
sUnspot
150
activity:
Sunspot Number

100
past and
fUtUre
50 MAUNDER
MINIMUM
0
1600 1650 1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 2050

19
250 Sunspot Cycles: Past and Future
18
200 21 22 24
23
Sunspot Number

150 20

100
25
50

0
1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

200

Cycle 24 Sunspot Number

150 Prediction (May 2013)
Sunspot Number

100

50

0
1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020

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 March 2011 September 2011

September 2010

March 2012
May 2010

September 2012

Starting in May 2010, six images from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory track the rising level of
solar activity as the Sun progressed toward solar max in 2013.

Knowing that solar activity follows a predictable cycle is important because of the many ways an active Sun
impacts our planet. During solar maximums, the Sun emits larger amounts of radiation in the extreme UV
spectrum that can cause significant changes in the conductivity of the Earth’s ionosphere. Solar maximums are
also associated with stronger, more frequent solar flares and coronal mass ejections, which can cause massive
disturbances in the Earth’s geomagnetic fields.

Surprisingly, humans are exposed to more UVB radiation during solar minimums than solar maximums because
of the impact of UV radiation on the Earth’s protective ozone layer. Ozone forms in the upper atmosphere when
UV radiation splits oxygen (O2) into free-floating ions of oxygen. These highly reactive ions combine with regular
oxygen molecules to form ozone (03). When solar radiation decreases during a solar minimum, fewer oxygen
molecules are split and the concentration of protective ozone in the atmosphere decreases. As the ozone layer
thins, more of the Sun’s UVB radiation can penetrate to the Earth’s surface.

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the little ice age

Around the turn of the twentieth century, a British astronomer and mathematician named Edward Maunder and
his second wife, Annie (a brilliant mathematician in her own right), photographed and studied sunspots for the
Royal Observatory. While reviewing historical sunspot data, the couple identified an extended period between
1645 and 1715 when sunspots were unusually rare. During one 30-year timespan, astronomers had counted
about 50 sunspots rather than the typical 40,000 to 50,000. In fact, in 1670 they observed no sunspots at all.

Many of Maunder’s contemporaries blamed the lack of sunspot activity on shoddy observations. But the Italian
astronomer Giovanni Cassini made painstaking observations of sunspots over much of the period. Polish
astronomer Johannes Hevelius also published descriptions of the solar surface that he and his wife had made
continuously between 1652 and 1685. The French astronomer Jean Picard (no relation to the fictional starship
captain) made systematic observations of the Sun on every clear day from 1653 until he died in 1685. So the
problem was not a lack of accurate data. Something had caused the Sun to go silent.

This prolonged period of minimal sunspot activity has become known as the Maunder Minimum and
corresponds with the coldest part of the Little Ice Age, a period between about 1550 and 1850 when
temperatures in Europe and North America plummeted. Winters were so bitterly cold that many farms and
villages in Switzerland were destroyed by expanding glaciers. In 1658, the largest strait (known as the Great
Belt) between the main Danish islands froze over, allowing the Swedish army to march across the sea and
attack Copenhagen. The period also saw famines in Estonia, Finland, France, Norway, and Sweden. Agricultural
output dropped so precipitously that one historian described Alpine villagers stretching their diminished stores
of barley and oats by mixing ground nutshells into their bread flour.

In 1683, Londoners
made the best of
the unusually cold
weather and held
a Frost Fair on the
Thames River.

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 Northwest Passage

This data visualization from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer on NASA’s Aqua satellite shows the Arctic sea ice
on September 14, 2007, when the Northwest Passage was free of ice for the first time since satellite records began.

the sUn and climate change

In the 1930s, Charles Greeley Abbot, an American astrophysicist (and inventor of several solar-powered
appliances, including the solar cooker and solar still), posited a connection between solar cycles and the
Earth’s climate. Although Abbot earned enough respect among the scientific community to be named secretary
of the Smithsonian Institution, he was widely criticized for his theories. Unfortunately for Abbot, accurate
measurements of solar radiation simply were not available in his day. Since the advent of satellites, however,
scientists have taken more precise measurements that tend to support Abbot. As a result, a growing consensus
within the scientific community is acknowledging the significant contributions solar activity makes to global
climate change.

Though the correlation between the Maunder Minimum and the coldest period of the Little Ice Age has been
noted for years, only recently have scientists been able to make a causal connection between especially
weak solar minimums and extended periods of cold winters on Earth. In 2011, using data from NASA’s Solar
Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE), a team of British scientists uncovered a link between the variability
of solar activity and the Earth’s climate. The result has been a veritable war of words between climate scientists,
most of whom believe that human activity is causing significant global climate change, and climate skeptics,
who point to things like the variability of solar activity as the main cause.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a scientific body established by the United Nations
in 1988 to investigate the causes and impacts of global climate change. Thousands of scientists, engineers,
meteorologists, and other experts representing more than 120 governments voluntarily assess available data
and write and review reports. In 1990, the IPCC completed its First Assessment Report, which concluded that
emissions of certain greenhouse gases from human activity were contributing to a measurable increase in
global temperatures. Since then, the IPCC has released three additional reports and one supplemental report,
all confirming a link between human activities and observed global climate changes.

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In early 2013, Alec Rawls, an American blogger who volunteered to review the IPCC’s latest report (anyone may
apply to review IPCC reports), leaked a draft of the report online. Rawls highlighted one paragraph in chapter
seven examining the link between solar activity and the Earth’s climate. In it, the drafters acknowledge that solar
radiation appears to account for some of the observed warming of the Earth (though scientists are unsure of the
exact mechanism). Rawls and other climate skeptics were quick to jump on the paragraph as evidence refuting
the IPCC’s claim that human activity is driving global climate change.

The truth is always a little more complicated. While variations in solar activity can (and do) impact Earth’s
climate, the current rate of global warming is almost certainly not the result of solar activity. Bob Berman,
one of the world’s foremost experts on all things solar, has noted that the Sun is only one of four factors that
substantially affect the Earth’s climate: volcanic dust, cyclical weather events like El Niño, greenhouse gas
emissions, and variations in solar radiation. According to NASA research, sunspot activity can transfer to the
Earth energy equivalent to roughly 15 years of greenhouse-gas emissions (at the rate humans were emitting
greenhouse gases in 2010). While that amount is substantial, Berman claims that it has been dwarfed since
1994 by nonsolar factors, chief among them greenhouse-gas emissions.

To back up his claim, Berman notes that global temperatures peaked in the 1940s but then began falling
for 30 years, even as carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions increased. Then a strange thing happened. Global
temperatures started climbing again, faster than ever recorded. At the same time, solar activity decreased. The
Sun’s brightness fell during solar cycle #20 (around 1970) and dropped even more during cycle #23 (around
the year 2000). Yet global average temperatures continued to soar. In other words, according to Berman, the
Sun does contribute to climate variability. But until around 1990, solar activity was merely masking the greater
contribution being made by greenhouse-gas emissions. In fact, by decreasing its activity, the Sun has partially
counteracted human contributions to global warming. But if solar activity starts to increase again, things may
get a lot hotter.

According to NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, November 2012 was the fifth warmest November since record-
keeping began in 1880. On the map, areas that experienced warmer temperatures than the 1981–2010 average are in
red and cooler temperatures are in blue.

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 7
The
fuTuRe
Of OuR
SuN
In the prime of our Sun’s life, it is continuously
converting hydrogen to helium through the
process of nuclear fusion. Over the course of
time, however, this constant fusion changes
the Sun’s interior. At its center, where high
temperatures and pressures accelerate the
fusion process, the amount of helium increases
compared to the core’s outer edges, where
fusion is slightly slower. As more and more of the
inner core is converted to helium, the nuclear
fusion process will move outward, searching for
more hydrogen to fuse. Meanwhile, the helium-
rich inner core will keep growing.
rUnning oUt of gas
Within the Sun’s core there are always two forces at play—the outward-pushing pressure of nuclear fusion and
the inward-pulling tug of gravity. As the fusion process moves away from the core, the outward pressure will
weaken, but the inward pull of gravity will remain the same. Once a substantial amount of the hydrogen fuel
in the Sun’s core is converted to helium (when the Sun is approximately 10 billion years old, about 5.4 billion
years from now), gravity will start to overcome fusion and the helium core will begin to contract.

This contraction will start to break the atomic structure of particles deep in the Sun’s core, releasing energy
that will be transferred outward, driving up temperatures on the outer edges of the core, where hydrogen fusion
continues. The extra heating of the outer core will cause the Sun’s remaining hydrogen to fuse more quickly.
Within a relatively short period of time, the Sun’s structure will change from a furiously burning inner core
surrounded by a thick layer of hydrogen to a furiously burning thin shell of hydrogen surrounding an inner core
of inert helium.

missing mass?
For an easy way to calculate
the Sun’s loss of mass during
hydrogen fusion, look at a
periodic table, which shows
one hydrogen atom as having
a mass of 1.008 daltons (a
dalton is the standardized unit
used for indicating mass on
the atomic level). One atom
of helium, according to the
table, has a mass of 4.0026
daltons. During fusion, the
Sun converts four atoms
of hydrogen into one atom
of helium. But 4 hydrogen
atoms at 1.008 dalton per
atom = 4.032 daltons, just
a tad more than the 4.0026
daltons of a helium atom
(specifically, 0.7% more). The
missing mass is what has been
converted to energy. Although
it does not seem like much,
that 0.7% makes up the bulk
of energy our Sun will emit
over the course of its life and
is far greater than any energy
source on Earth.

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 prime of life
HYDROGEN
CORE FUSION
hydrogen
depletion in
the sUn H He

Hydrogen
The inward pull of core
gravity created by
mass equals the
outward pressure of
hydrogen fusion in the core.
Oddly enough, as the Sun is
running out of hydrogen fuel, it
will actually burn brighter. The
extra energy released from atoms
being crushed in the inner core hydrogen
will cause the fusion process in
the hydrogen shell to quicken
depletion
Helium core
and exert pressure on the Sun’s HYDROGEN
remaining, non-burning outer SHELL FUSION
layers. Eventually, this outward
pressure will become so great it
H He
will overcome the Sun’s inward
gravitational pull. Even while the
fiery hydrogen shell around the
Sun’s outer core is heating up, the As mass is depleted, Hydrogen
outward pressure will cause the the gravitational pull is fusion shell
reduced. A shell of burning
rest of the outer layers to begin hydrogen rushes outward as it is
rapidly expanding and cooling. displaced by helium in the core.
This process of inward heating
causing outward expansion and
cooling will continue as the Sun
swells in size.

red giant
phase Helium core
HELIUM
CORE FUSION

He C

The outward pressure

of fusion begins to
overcome the inward
pull of gravity, causing the Hydrogen
star to swell up to 250 times fusion shell
its current size.

the fUtUre of oUr sUn 185

 the age of
oUr sUn

The Sun
today

Earth
forms

Nebula Protostar Birth G-Type Main Sequence

> 4.6 billion 4.6 billion (Hydrogen burning 4.5 billion

years ago years ago begins) years ago to 5.4 billion
years from now
4.5 billion --
years ago Sun’s age:
-- Birth to
Sun’s age: 10 billion years
0

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 Hydrogen Red Giant White Dwarf Black Dwarf
Exhaustion
5.4 billion 6.4 billion ≈10 quadrillion
5.4 billion years from now years from now years from now
years from now -- -- --
-- Sun’s age: Sun’s age: Sun’s age:
Sun’s age: 10 to 11 billion years 11 billion to ≈10 quadrillion years >10 quadrillion years,
≈10 billion years in theory

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 the red giant phase
(10 billion years to 11 billion
years)
As the Sun’s outer layers cool to a little over 4,700 degrees Celsius (almost 8,500
degrees Fahrenheit) about 5.4 billion years from now, it will enter the red giant
phase of its life. Its appearance will change from brilliant yellow to luminous red.
Though it will change color, it will actually appear several hundred times brighter
because of its enormous size. In fact, during its red giant phase, the Sun’s radius
will expand by a factor of at least 200, until its surface reaches about as far as
Mercury’s present orbit.

At the same time, gravity at its core will compress about 25% of the Sun’s total
mass into a ball about 1/1000th its current size (a little larger than the Earth).
The density of the core will increase from 150,000 to almost 1 billion kilograms
per cubic meter (9,364 to over 62.4 million pounds per square foot). But its
cooler outer layers will become increasingly thin. Outward pressure will blow
more and more matter into space, until, over a period of about 1 billion years, the
photosphere becomes ill-defined and the layers outside the core transition into a
corona of enormous size.

the big drift:

the sUn’s redUced gravity
If the planets remained in their current orbits, fairly simple calculations indicate
that, during its red giant phase, the Sun would expand until its equator stretched
well past Mars. Under this scenario, all the inner planets—Mercury, Venus,
Earth, and Mars—would be swallowed up. But as the Sun’s mass is turned
from hydrogen into helium, part of that mass is converted to energy. The Sun’s
mass is also the source of its gravity, so as the Sun loses mass over its lifetime,
its gravitational pull will be reduced. The reduction in the Sun’s gravity will, of
course, impact the orbit of planets in our solar system. In fact, an orbit is simply
the gravitationally curved path of an object around a point in space. In the case of
the Earth, that point is near the center of the Sun.

Interestingly, the Sun’s loss of mass will not reduce its gravitational pull on Earth
at a constant rate. This is because the Earth (like all the planets in our solar
system) exerts a pull of its own, partly because of its mass and partly because it
is spinning around the Sun, converting kinetic energy into a type of centripetal
force. Astronomers calculated that, during initial changes in the Sun’s mass, the
Earth’s orbit would change in proportion. But as the Sun’s mass loss approaches
50%, the gravity of Mars and the outer planets would start to overcome the Sun’s
gravitational pull. As a result, their orbits should expand rapidly. At 50% mass
loss, the outward pull of these planets should win out entirely, whipping them off
into interstellar space.

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 the sUn’s
oUter
swelling

During its red giant phase, about 5.4 billion years from now,
the Sun will swell to about where the Earth currently orbits.

Mercury Venus Earth

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when the sUn swallows the earth

In 2008, two astrophysicists, Klaus-Peter Schroder and Robert C. Smith, created a model of the Sun’s evolution
in order to calculate how the Sun’s change in mass will impact the orbit of the planets. According to the model,
the Sun will begin to lose mass quickly when it enters its red giant phase. By the time it has swelled to its
greatest size, it will have lost about 67% of its current mass. While the Earth’s orbit may expand up to 50%, the
model predicts that it won’t happen fast enough to escape the Sun’s expansion. Before the Earth can get far
enough away, the expanding Sun will catch up to it. Schroder and Smith estimate that this will happen around
500,000 years before the Sun reaches its peak size. If their calculations are correct, had the Earth’s original
orbit been just 0.15 AUs farther out, the planet would have (barely) escaped being engulfed by the Sun.

Once inside the Sun’s corona, the Earth will be bombarded by solar matter, its orbit will decay, and it will quickly
spin into the inferno. Remarkably, except for the three inner planets, much of the solar system will survive, and
even thrive . . . for a time. According to Schroder and Smith’s model, the circumstellar habitable zone will have
shifted to the outer solar system, allowing liquid water to exist well past the current orbit of Pluto.

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 beyond:
hUmanity’s need to escape

Well before the Sun engulfs the Earth during its red giant phase, solar radiation will have destroyed all life on
the planet. Just as the Sun nears 10 billion years old, its energy output will be more than any remaining life on
Earth (assuming there is any) could handle. The Sun will celebrate its 10-billionth birthday by heating the Earth
to over 1,300 degrees Celsius (about 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit) and turning the Earth’s oceans to vapor. By
its 13-billionth birthday, the Sun will have melted the surface of the planet into a vast sea of lava. By the Sun’s
14-billionth birthday, not a whisper of the Earth’s atmosphere will remain.

On his 70th birthday, the famed physicist Stephen Hawking gave a radio interview during which he advocated
space colonization and warned that it is dangerous for the human race to put all of its eggs in one basket (or
one planet). Assuming nothing else destroys us first, humanity has a while to plan our escape from the Sun’s
impending doom. Nevertheless, if there is any hope for our survival, we will have to find a way off the planet and
into a permanent, habitable new home somewhere beyond this solar system.

In 2011, a team of researchers with the Kepler Space Observatory Mission identified 54 exoplanets—planets
outside our solar system that orbit within the habitable zone of their stars. Of these, five were believed to be
smaller than twice the size of Earth and, therefore, might have gravitational forces humans could withstand.
Extrapolating from these results, the team estimated that there must be at least 500 million planets—among the
50 billion in our galaxy—that are within the habitable zone.

While 500 million planets sounds like a lot, Kepler scientists soon discovered several reasons that a suitable
new home for humanity may be harder to find than they initially assumed. For one thing, 70% to 90% of all the
stars in our galaxy are small red dwarfs
that emit so little energy (relative to our
Sun) that any Earth-like planet within
the habitable zone would have to orbit
very close to its host star. But at close
distances, the red dwarf’s tidal forces
would be so strong that they would prevent
the planet from spinning. One side of the
planet would always face the star, while
the other side would always face away.
This would mean not only discomfort for a
species accustomed to the Earth’s cycle of
day and night, but also that one side of the
planet would be boiling hot while the other
side would be freezing. Also, one side
would constantly be exposed to radiation
from the star while the other would be
incapable of photosynthesis (as we know
it). More importantly, a planet that cannot
spin probably cannot produce a magnetic
field strong enough to protect humans
from the powerful solar flares most red
dwarfs emit. As of January 7, 2013, Kepler had identified 1,573 planets that appear to be
within the circumstellar habitable zone of their stars, and more are being
found all the time. Earth-size stars appear in blue, super-Earth-size stars in
green, Neptune-size stars in orange, and giant-planet-size stars in red.

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 kepler-62
system

Habitable zone

62f 62e 62d 62c 62b

Mercury Venus Earth Mars

The five-planet Kepler-62 system is compared to the inner planets of our solar system in this diagram. Kepler-62e is one of the
highest-ranking exoplanets on the Earth Similarity Index. It orbits a dwarf star that is smaller, dimmer, and older than our Sun.

As of April 24, 2013, the Kepler team listed nine potentially habitable planets in its Habitable Exoplanet Catalog.
Of these, Gliese 581g tied with newly listed Kepler-62e (discovered in April 2013) for the highest score on the
Earth Similarity Index (ESI), a measure of the similarity of a planet to Earth on a scale from 0 (least similar) to 1
(exact replica). Gliese 581g—a planet thought to orbit the red dwarf Gliese 581, some 22 light years from Earth
in the constellation Libra—achieved a score of 0.82 on the ESI, as did Kepler-62e.

Even with its high ESI score, Gliese 581g is a good reminder that a new Earth will be difficult to find. Gliese
581g suffers from all the problems that come with orbiting a red dwarf: it does not spin, a large portion of any
water on the planet is likely frozen, and its surface temperature is estimated to range from –35 to –12 degrees
Celsius (–35 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit).

Moreover, there is some debate over whether the planet exists at all. In 179 measurements of the Gliese star
system taken over 6.5 years by the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS), a high-precision
spectrograph designed to find habitable exoplanets by spectroscopy, Gliese 581g never showed up. The Kepler
team claimed that the researchers analyzing HARPS data made a methodological error that caused them to
miss the planet—a claim the HARPS researchers deny. The debate likely will remain unresolved until better
data is available. Nevertheless, Kepler’s experience with Gliese 581g, initially touted as the most Earth-like
planet yet discovered, is a sobering reminder that Earth is a pretty special place and replacing it could require
sifting through millions of false hopes.

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 Assuming that our new home is one
of the habitable exoplanets, humans
will need to overcome the many
difficulties involved in traversing
the vast distances between
stars. Interstellar travel requires
developing a propulsion mechanism
strong enough to propel a spacecraft
(large enough to hold a sizeable
population) to unbelievable speeds.
According to Albert Einstein’s theory
of special relativity (think E = mc2),
mass and energy are different forms
of the same thing. One unfortunate
impact of this equivalence is the
relativistic effect of velocity. That
is, as a spacecraft reaches speeds
Highly ranked on the Earth Similarity Index, the exoplanet Gliese 581 g dominates approaching the speed of light,
the foreground of this artist’s rendering. Also pictured are the system’s red dwarf it gains relative mass, making it
star and three other inner planets. increasingly difficult to accelerate
further. As a result of this effect,
any interstellar propulsion system (at least any system capable of reaching other solar systems within a human
lifespan) would require so many of Earth’s resources that a large portion of the human population would have to
devote its work almost entirely to the mission.

One way around the challenge of transporting humans—and all of the oxygen, food, water, and other support
systems we require—is to ship fragmented human genomes to a habitable planet where, upon arrival, they
would be reconstructed by robots. Using incredibly precise maps of human DNA, the robots would essentially
“grow” a human colony from birth. As kooky as that might sound, it is one idea under consideration by the
100 Year Starship (100YSS), a joint
project of the NASA Ames Research
Center and the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA),
which was established by the
U.S. Department of Defense.

DARPA is known for turning outside-

the-box thinking into reality. They are
the folks largely responsible for turning
the Internet from a simple idea into a
practical mechanism for sharing data
between military bases. The 100YSS
project is DARPA’s latest effort to
achieve practical interstellar travel
within 100 years. The project leaders
point out that, in 1865, the science-
fiction author Jules Verne could not
conceive of the technology required to
send a man to the Moon. But a little Just over a hundred years after Jules Verne wrote From the Earth to the Moon,
over a hundred years later, the United science fiction became reality when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin (pictured)
States made history by doing just that! became the first two people to set foot on the Moon.

the fUtUre of oUr sUn 193

The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of the Egg nebula, a pre-planetary nebula. At its center, thick dust obscures the star
that is rapidly casting off shells of gas and dust as it transforms itself into a white dwarf.

the white dwarf phase

(11 billion to aboUt 10 QUadrillion years)
The Sun’s red giant phase will essentially end when gravity compresses the Sun’s core so much that the
atomic structure of the core’s mass begins to break down. What remains will be crushed into what is known
as degenerate matter, a stew of subatomic particles (electrons, neutrons, protons, and so on) incapable of
interacting with one another in the same fashion as normal matter. This collapse will release enormous
amounts of energy, heating the core to a temperature of about 1 billion degrees Celsius (over 1.8 billion
degrees Fahrenheit).

This critical temperature will ignite the fusion of helium into carbon. But instead of the slow, steady burn of
hydrogen fusion, the degenerate state of matter in the collapsed core will cause the entire core to ignite nearly
simultaneously in what is known as a helium flash. Then a process similar to the red giant phase (but much
quicker) will begin. Helium in the central core will be fused into carbon at a slightly faster rate than helium at
the outer edges, and the fusion process will move outward to form a burning shell of helium surrounding a
carbon-oxygen core. What remains of the ionized plasma making up the Sun’s corona will be thrown off as a
glowing halo of solar matter known as a stellar remnant nebula (sometimes called a planetary nebula). This is
known as the asymptotic giant phase.

Our Sun does not have enough mass to produce gravitational forces strong enough to fuse carbon in a runaway
reaction that would spark a supernova. Instead, after shedding its outer layers, all that will remain is a simmering
core of carbon and oxygen known as a white dwarf. The Sun will no longer undergo fusion and so will no longer
have a source of energy. Its core will have collapsed as much as it can. Although the Sun will still be very hot
even as a white dwarf, from this point on, its remaining energy will radiate away as it gradually cools down.

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Because its interior will be mostly degenerate matter, the Sun will have very little atomic activity and will
maintain a constant temperature of about 100 million degrees Celsius (about 1.8 million degrees Fahrenheit).
Its outer shell, however, will cool to about 100,000 degrees Celsius (a little over 180,000 degrees Fahrenheit).
But because the Sun’s remaining heat will radiate from such a smaller surface area and the cooling process will
gradually slow, this phase could last a very, very long time. There are even some white dwarfs almost as old as
the known universe still radiating at temperatures of a few thousand degrees.

This composite image from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope shows the white dwarf at the center of the
Cat’s Eye planetary nebula.

the fUtUre of oUr sUn 195

 “LIfe, fOrever dyIng tO be bOrn afresh,
fOrever yOung and eager, wILL presentLy
stand upOn thIs earth, as upOn a fOOtstOOL,
and stretch Out Its reaLm amIdst the stars.”

—h.g. weLLs, THE OUTlINE Of HISTORy, 1920

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 the black
dwarf phase
(>10 QUadrillion years,
in theory)
Scientists believe the known universe is about 13.79
billion years old. Since nothing can be older, we can
only predict what our Sun will look like after 13.79
billion years. Theoretically, it will continue to cool until
its temperature is equal to its surroundings. At this
phase, when the Sun stops radiating heat altogether, it
will have become a black dwarf.

No black dwarfs are thought to exist yet. Scientists

speculate they might look very similar to a planet but
exert substantially greater gravitational pull on nearby
objects. In fact, if we ever find a black dwarf, it will
probably be because we have detected distortions
caused by its gravitational pull on objects around it.

In this image of the ancient globular star cluster NGC 6397 from
the Hubble Space Telescope, white dwarf stars ranging from
less than 800 million years old to about 3.5 billion years old are
dotted among the smaller, less brightly shining stars.

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 looking ahead
Despite the doom that awaits humanity as our Sun dims, the future looks bright. We are only just beginning to
understand the complex forces within our Sun and how they impact the space environment. Satellites launched
just a few years ago are revolutionizing our understanding of the Sun and its complex interconnection with all
parts of the solar system. Over the next several years, NASA will launch even more satellites as part of the fleet
of spacecraft comprising the Heliophysics Great Observatory.

magnetospheric
mUltiscale mission
In August 2014, NASA will launch four identical spacecraft designed to study the Earth’s
magnetosphere as part of the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS). The spacecraft will take
critical measurements of the magnetosphere’s electron diffusion region, the place where magnetic
field lines rearrange and convert magnetic energy to kinetic energy during magnetic reconnection.
It is also the mechanism by which energy is transferred from the Earth’s magnetic field to charged
particles in its upper atmosphere.
A better understanding of this
process may provide insights
into how it works in the Sun’s
corona. Knowing how magnetic
reconnection accelerates
charged particles around the Sun
may help develop more accurate
forecasting of coronal mass
ejections and better defenses
against their impacts on the
Earth.

solar
orbiter
By January 2017, NASA plans to
launch the Solar Orbiter (SolO),
a joint project with the European
An artist’s concept of the four spacecraft to be launched as part of the Space Agency (ESA), designed
Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission to make very close observations
of the Sun. Carrying 10 precision
instruments, SolO will, among
other things, analyze the magnetic properties and composition of the solar wind and map magnetic
variability within the heliosphere. Scientists have observed, for example, that the density of charged
particles within the heliosphere appears to be increasing, but they don’t know why. By collecting
precise data on the properties of the Sun’s magnetic forces, SolO may reveal the processes driving
connections between the Sun, the Earth, and the outer reaches of the solar system.

200 oUr sUn

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 solar probe plUs

In 2018, NASA plans to launch the Solar Probe Plus, a robotic spacecraft designed to probe the
Sun’s outer corona, passing nearly four times closer to the Sun than any previous spacecraft.
Getting that close will accelerate Solar Probe Plus to speeds up to 200 kilometers (about 124 miles)
per second, giving it the distinction of being the fastest human-made object ever created. When it
reaches its final orbit around the Sun, the probe will be exposed to temperatures higher than 1,400
degrees Celsius (2,600 degrees Fahrenheit). A shield at the front of the probe, made of reinforced
carbon-carbon composite, will protect the precision instruments on board.

If all goes as planned, the probe will analyze the forces driving the solar wind, explore how plasma
“dust” in the Sun’s corona influences the formation of charged particles, and trace the energy flows
that accelerate these particles as they follow the solar wind outward. This information may prove
invaluable in developing methods of protecting critical GPS and communications satellites orbiting the
Earth and vulnerable electronics on its surface.

The Solar Probe Plus approaches the outer layer of the Sun in this artist’s rendering.

the fUtUre of oUr sUn 201

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Ironically, the more we learn about the science
of our Sun, the more we can appreciate it as
something more than the subject of scientific
study. When we know how our bodies take
energy from the Sun and transform it into vital
nutrients, when we comprehend how magnetic
fields generated deep within the Sun impact
the electronic gadgets in our pockets, when we
understand that everything in the solar system
exists within its outermost layers, our Sun
becomes more than a fixture of “outer space.”

The Sun is humanity’s constant companion,

playing as close a relationship with life on
planet Earth as any celestial body could. In its
rising and setting, it determines the rhythm
of our lives. It bathes us in warmth and gives
us the ability to see everything around us—all
the goodness and all the tragedy of life. For all
the breakthroughs in astronomy and physics
the study of our Sun has inspired, perhaps
its greatest gift to humanity is in helping us to
better understand ourselves and our unique
place in the universe.

Our Sun is one among billions of stars. But it is

the only star so immediately experienced by all
humankind. The Sun connects every person of
every race, nationality, and religion. No matter
where (or when) they have lived, every human
being shares the Sun (whether we want to
or not). That is something that can be said
of very few things. And when we have finally
understood everything that makes our Sun
tick, when science has solved every mystery, it
will still be our shared relationship with the Sun
that makes it truly remarkable. Indeed, the
Sun is not just a star. It is our star . . . and the
only star that matters.
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 acknowledgments
They say the young are fearless because they don’t know enough to be afraid. I can’t say that I approached
putting together a trade book on the science of the Sun fearlessly. But I can say I was a babe in the woods
when I started the process. The idea was simple enough, even obvious: NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory
(SDO) is producing photographs of the Sun in such unprecedented detail that someone really ought to publish
them in a coffee-table book. What’s more, the book should explain the science of the Sun in a way that any
casual reader can understand. As an energy policy expert and avowed science geek, I had written several
books explaining the technical aspects of electricity and the intricacies of energy markets for amateur readers
and imagined that a book simplifying the science of the Sun would be no different.

I had no idea how Herculean a task I was proposing so flippantly. And I’m glad. Had I known the tremendous
amount of research, writing, rewriting, editing, fact-checking, rechecking, updating, and coordinating involved,
I may never have jumped into the task with such abandon. The Sun is a topic as big as its subject, and
information about the Sun is constantly changing (thanks in no small part to new discoveries made possible by
NASA’s incredible instruments and the extraordinary scientists that use them). I have no doubt that, even with
the help of far more talented individuals, I’ve gotten some of it wrong and, for that, I beg your forgiveness. All
mistakes herein are entirely mine.

Any credit, however, goes to an amazing team of people, whose support and assistance turned my blissfully
naïve thought into this remarkable book. I am immensely grateful for the support and friendship of Jeff
McLaughlin at Race Point Publishing, who shepherded this project from its genesis. His unwavering
confidence in me often proved greater than my own. His ability to float effortlessly above the torrent of book
development provided much-needed calm in the midst of the storm and is a testament to his unparalleled
talent as a publisher.

Many thanks go to Nancy Hall and Linda Falken of The Book Shop, Ltd. As the book’s editor, Linda not
only placed every dot and tittle to ensure the book’s stylistic clarity, she culled through reams of research,
meticulously checking for technical accuracy. If not for her dedication to going above and beyond her editorial
duties, the text would contain several embarrassing factual errors. If they gave an award for “Most Patience
Shown a Trade-Book Newbie,” Nancy Hall would easily take the trophy. She coordinated all the simultaneous
moving parts involved in a project this complex and allowed the rest of us to focus on meeting very challenging
deadlines. In a close second would be graphic artist Tim Palin, whose visually compelling design transformed
my dense text into stunning art.

This book began as an idea sparked by NASA’s photographs and ended as a kind of homage to this
consistently undervalued agency. One way or another, I owe NASA for every word and image in this book.
But I am especially grateful to Dr. Steele Hill, media specialist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, who
provided invaluable advice on the initial outlines, suggested some of the book’s most dazzling images, and
facilitated its review by the renowned astrophysicist Dr. Lika Guhathakurta, lead scientist for NASA’s “Living
With a Star” program. Special thanks also goes to Dr. David Spergel, Princeton’s superstar astrophysicist, who
contributed the foreword (and whose work on the early universe I have long admired).

Anyone who has written a book knows that no amount of technical and professional help can make up for the
unconditional support and daily sacrifices of individuals whose only stake in the project is their love for the
author. For me, this generous and long-suffering group includes my parents, Bob and Sharon Cooper, and
my touchstone, David Styers. But, most of all it includes my best friend and roommate, Thomas Makely, who
endured more than any roommate should ever have to seeing this project to fruition.

—Christopher Cooper

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 glossary
a asymptotic giant phase – the stage in the life cycle
of a main sequence star after it has fused the helium
in its core to carbon and the process of helium fusion
adenosine triphosphate (ATP) – a product of moves outward, greatly increasing luminosity.
photosynthesis, ATP is a coenzyme essential for
transporting chemical energy within cells. aurora – a light display in the Earth’s atmosphere
(usually at higher latitudes) that occurs when charged
aerobic respiration – a process of generating cellular particles from the solar wind collide with the Earth’s
energy that uses oxygen as the final electron receptor. magnetosphere, causing them to glow. The aurora
observed in the northern hemisphere is called the
anaerobic respiration – any process of generating aurora borealis (the northern lights), while the aurora
cellular energy that uses something other than oxygen observed in the southern hemisphere is called aurora
as the final electron receptor. australis (the southern lights).

angular momentum – in simple terms, the product of

a spinning object’s rate of rotation and the amount of
matter (mass) that is rotated.
b
antimatter – matter composed of antiparticles,
which have the same mass as subatomic particles in baryogenesis – a hypothetical physical process in
ordinary matter but opposite electrical and magnetic the early moments of the universe that produced an
charges. When matter and antimatter come together, asymmetry between matter and antimatter, resulting
they destroy each other. in a residual amount of matter from which everything
in the universe formed.
anisotropy – a measurable difference in property.
In astronomy, anisotropy generally refers to the beta-plus decay – a type of radioactive decay in
tiny differences in temperature between areas of which an atom emits a positron and an electron
mass in the infant universe as measured by cosmic neutrino from its nucleus, reconfiguring the quarks in
background radiation. a proton and turning it into a neutron.

Archaea – a domain of single-celled microorganisms, binary star system – two stars that are so close
many of which utilize anaerobic respiration, whose together that their gravitational interaction causes
cells do not contain nuclei or other membrane-bound them to orbit around a common center of mass.
intracellular structures.
bioluminescence – the production and emission of
astrometric – referring to the measurement of the light by living organisms; also, the light produced.
position and motion of celestial bodies; also, a type
of binary star system that can be inferred from the black dwarf – a hypothetical stage in the life cycle of
motion caused by the gravitational interaction of a star when it cools to the point that it no longer emits
celestial bodies. significant heat or light. No black dwarfs exist (yet)
because the time calculated for a white dwarf star to
Astronomical Unit (AU) – a unit of length and reach this stage is longer than the current age of the
measurement defined as exactly 149,597,870,700 universe.
meters (92,955,807.3 miles), or roughly the mean
distance between the Earth and the Sun. blue shift – a shift in the wavelengths of an
approaching light source toward the ultraviolet end
of the electromagnetic spectrum caused by the
compression of light waves.

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 c convection cell – where plasma circulates in the
Sun’s convective zone, with hot plasma rising to the
surface, cooling, and sinking back inward.
calcifediol – a form of stored vitamin D that has
the potential to be converted into active vitamin D in convection current – the movement of plasma from
our bodies. the Sun’s hotter interior to its cooler surface and then
back again.
Cambrian Explosion – the relatively rapid appearance
of most animal phyla around 540 million years ago, convective zone – the layer of the Sun between the
accompanied by a massive diversification in the types radiative zone and the photosphere in which energy is
organisms. transferred primarily through convection.

camera obscura – an optical device that projects convex lens – a lens that is thicker at the center and
an image of an object onto an inside surface of a thinner around the edges so that that light passing
darkened room or box by passing light through a through it spreads out, causing objects to appear
small hole in one side. Camera obscura were often larger.
used to observe the Sun without damaging the eyes.
Copernican Revolution – a paradigm shift in scientific
center of mass – the balance point between the thinking from a geocentric model of the universe
gravitational forces of two or more objects where the (where the Earth is at the center) to a heliocentric
net gravitation force on either object is zero. model (where the Sun is at the center), generally
attributed to the work of astronomer Nicolaus
chromosphere – the lower layer of the Sun’s Copernicus.
atmosphere, located between the photosphere (the
Sun’s visible surface) and the corona. Coriolis effect – the apparent deflection toward the
direction of rotating objects moving through a rotating
circumstellar habitable zone – the region around frame, so that, from a static position, it appears some
a star within which it is theoretically possible for a force has been applied to the object, bending its path.
planet to maintain liquid water on its surface and,
therefore, be capable of supporting life. corona – the extremely hot upper layer of the Sun’s
atmosphere, which is composed of low-density
concave lens – a lens that is thinner at the center and plasma that extends for millions of kilometers into
thicker around the edges so that that light passing space.
through it converges, causing objects to appear
smaller. coronal mass ejection (CME) – the ejection of
charged material from the Sun’s atmosphere, usually
conservation of angular momentum – a law of caused by a sudden release of energy when loops
physics that holds that the angular momentum of magnetic field lines near the Sun’s surface snap
generated by spinning an object cannot be created open.
or destroyed, only transferred. The law explains why
fluid spinning objects like the Sun exhibit differential cosmic inflation – the theoretical rapid expansion
rotation. of the universe at rates exceeding the speed of light,
during the first fractions of a second after the Big
convection – the transfer of thermal energy by the Bang.
movement of fluids, usually through convection
currents. cyanobacteria – a phylum of bacteria, commonly
known as blue-green algae, that obtain their energy
through photosynthesis.

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 d e
dalton – the standard unit for indicating mass at an electromagnetic spectrum – the range of all possible
atomic scale, named after the nineteenth-century frequencies (or wavelengths) of electromagnetic
English chemist John Dalton, a pioneer of modern radiation, from radio waves (with lengths from
atomic theory. hundreds of meters to about 1 millimeter) to short
gamma rays (with wavelengths below 1-trillionth of a
deferent – in the Ptolemaic model, a large ring meter).
around the Earth, along which a planet traveled as it
rotated on its epicycle. electromagnetism – one of the four known
fundamental forces of nature, it derives from the
degenerate matter – a collection of free-floating, interaction of electrons between molecules and can
non-interacting atomic particles (electrons, neutrons, induce an electrical charge and/or a magnetic field.
protons, etc.) created by the extraordinarily high
density within compacted stars and star remnants. electron transport chain – in photosynthesis, the
transfer of electrons between donor molecules and
differential rotation – a phenomenon in fluid acceptor molecules across a cellular or intracellular
spinning objects (like the Sun) in which angular membrane.
momentum within the object is not equally distributed
and different parts rotate at different rates. emission spectrum – the range in frequencies of
electromagnetic radiation emitted by an element
diproton – an unstable isotope of helium, also known or chemical compound after its atoms have been
as helium-2, that has two protons and no neutrons, excited, such as by burning.
and usually decays quickly into two separate protons.
epicycle – in the Ptolemaic model, a circle on which
doping – in solar photovoltaics, the process of a planet rotated. The epicycle orbited the Earth on a
intentionally introducing impurities into silicon to larger ring called a deferent. Epicycles were devised
manipulate its conductivity and induce the flow of by Ptolemy to account for the apparent retrograde
electrons. motion of some planets.

Doppler effect – the apparent change in frequency Era of Recombination – a period in the early
by the contraction or expansion of waves (including formation of the universe during which matter cooled
sound and light) as the source emitting them moves enough that electrons became bound to protons,
closer to or farther from the person detecting them. forming neutrally charged hydrogen atoms and
allowing photons to travel without being scattered by
dwarf star – any main sequence star with luminosity free-floating particles.
within a certain range; yellow dwarfs are stars of this
type that have a mass comparable to the Sun’s. exoplanet – any planet outside our solar system, the
presence of which is usually inferred by variations in a
dynamic pressure – the energy per unit volume of a star’s brightness that occur when the exoplanet’s orbit
fluid as it is compressed, as in the pressure exerted brings it between the star and the Earth.
on the leading edge of an airplane wing as it moves
through the atmosphere.

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 f helioseismology – the study of wave oscillations in the
Sun to provide information about matter and motion
focal point – the point at which rays of light converge within it.
after bouncing off of a concave mirror.
hydrogen burning – an expression often used to
Fraunhofer lines – a set of dark vertical lines in the refer to the process of nuclear fusion during which
optical spectrum of a light source that corresponds to hydrogen is fused to form helium.
various elements comprising the source.
hydrogen depletion – the point at which a star stops
fusion – a nuclear reaction during which the nuclei of fusing hydrogen into helium.
atoms under immense heat and pressure join to form
a new nucleus, converting a small amount of mass to hypernova – an intense supernova explosion thought
energy in the process. to create gamma-ray bursts as a massive, fast-
spinning star collapses to form a black hole.

g
i
gamma-ray burst – a narrow beam of intense
radiation, seen as bright flashes, released by induced current – an electrical charge through
hypernovas during the collapse of massive stars. terrestrial conductors (usually wires, transformers,
and circuitry) created when electromagnetic energy
geocentrism – a model of the cosmos in which the from the Sun interacts with the Earth’s geomagnetic
Earth is at the center and all celestial bodies orbit field.
around it.
International Unit (IU) – a standardized unit of
Gleissberg cycle – a proposed fluctuation in the measurement of a substance based on its biological
strength of solar cycles over a period of about activity.
87 years, named after the astronomer Wolfgang
Gleissberg. interplanetary magnetic field – the solar magnetic
field carried by the solar wind outward through the
granule – the top of a convection cell where heated solar system.
solar plasma reaches the Sun’s photosphere.
ionization – the addition or removal of an ion (a
charged particle such as an electron) from an atom.

h isotope – any of a type of element that varies by the

number of neutrons in its atomic nuclei.

heliocentrism – a model of the solar system in which

the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun.

heliomagnetic reversal – the 11-year cyclical change

l
in the Sun’s magnetic field during which its poles
switch polarity. lodestone – magnetite, a naturally magnetized
mineral.
heliophysics – study of the matter and motion of the
Sun and its magnetic field.

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 m nucleosynthesis – a process that began about three
minutes after the start of the Big Bang in which the
macrophage – a specialized cell of the immune first atomic nuclei were formed by the combination of
system that engulfs and digests cellular debris and protons and neutrons.
pathogens.

magnetic flux – a measure of the amount of a

magnetic field that passes through a surface.
o
magnetic reconnection – a process in highly
conductive plasmas in which magnetic field lines Oort Cloud – a hypothesized cloud made of billions
from different magnetic domains are spliced together of icy dust clumps surrounding the solar system at a
or otherwise change their patterns of connectivity with distance of about one light year from the center.
respect to the source of the field.
opsin – any of the light-sensitive proteins found in
magnetosphere – the protective outer layer of the photoreceptor cells that help convert photons into an
Earth’s ionosphere that deflects electromagnetism electrochemical signal.
and charged particles from the Sun.
osteomalacia – a painful softening of the bones
main sequence star – a distinctive type of star, also (commonly known as rickets) often resulting from a
called a dwarf star, with color and brightness similar vitamin D deficiency.
to our Sun.
Oxygen Catastrophe – the abrupt increase in the
Maragha Revolution – the paradigm shift away from concentration of atmospheric oxygen about 200
the Ptolemaic cosmological model by thirteenth- million years after the first cyanobacteria started
century Persian astronomers associated with the expelling it as a by-product of photosynthesis; also
observatory near Maragha (also known as Maragheh), known as the Great Oxygen Event.
Iran.
oxygenic photosynthesis – the conversion of sunlight
Maunder Minimum – a prolonged period of reduced into chemical energy, which produces oxygen as a by-
sunspot activity, from about 1645 to 1715, during produce and releases it into the atmosphere.
which Europe experienced lower-than-average
temperatures.

megaelectron volt – a measure of energy equal to

one million times the amount of energy gained by an
p
electron as it accelerates through one volt.
parallax – the difference in the apparent position of
an object viewed along two different lines of sight.
Astronomers use parallax to calculate the distance of
n celestial objects.

photochemical – a chemical reaction initiated by the

nebula – an interstellar cloud of dust, hydrogen, absorption of energy in the form of light.
helium, and ionized gas from which stars form.
photon – a packet of light or other electromagnetic
neutrino – a tiny, electrically neutral subatomic radiation
particle released during the process of hydrogen
fusion inside the Sun. photosphere – the deepest region of a star from which
light is radiated, it is the turbulent “surface” of our Sun.

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 photovoltaic – relating to a method of converting Q
sunlight into electricity by exciting the electrons in a
conductive material, which causes them to jump free quantum mechanics – a branch of physics that
of their atoms. attempts to describe phenomena at the subatomic
level, incorporating various concepts including the
plasma – one of the four fundamental states of wave-particle duality of light and matter.
matter, it is composed of charged particles (ions) that
are highly reactive to electromagnetism. quark – a fundamental constituent of matter. The
configuration of quarks determines the electrical
polarity – a property of an electromagnetic object that charge of their composite particles (such as protons
helps describe the charge to which it is attracted. and neutrons).
Conventionally magnetic field lines emanate from the
“north” pole and re-enter through the “south” pole.

positron – the antimatter counterpart of an electron,

often generated by the radioactive decay of a
r
substance; also known as an antielectron.
radiation – the transfer of energy through
Precambrian Era – the time period from the formation electromagnetic waves that travel between atoms.
of the Earth (about 4.54 billion years ago) until
the beginning of the Cambrian period (about 541 radiative zone – a layer in the Sun’s interior between
million years ago), which was dominated by life the core and the convective zone in which energy is
forms utilizing anaerobic respiration to create cellular transferred primarily through radiation.
energy.
radioisotope – a type of isotope with an unstable
precession, precessional movement – the wobble of nucleus that emits radiation at a steady rate as it
the Earth on its axis over a 26,000-year rotation that is decays to a stable form.
thought to cause the position of the stars to appear to
shift slowly over time. red giant – a late phase in the evolution of some
stars, when the star has converted all the hydrogen
prominence – a filament of charged plasma (often in its core to helium, and hydrogen fusion speeds
looped) anchored at the Sun’s photosphere and outward in a shell surrounding the core.
extending into the chromosphere and corona.
red shift – a shift in the wavelengths of a receding
proton-proton chain reaction – a type of fusion light source toward the infrared end of the
reaction that converts hydrogen into helium by first electromagnetic spectrum caused by the expansion of
forming deuterium (a hydrogen atom with one proton light waves due to the Doppler effect.
and one neutron in its nucleus) and then fusing
deuterium atoms. retrograde motion – the apparent reversal in motion
of a planet or other celestial object as observed from
protostar – the earliest stage in the formation of a Earth.
star when an area of mass grows inside a cloud of
interstellar dust. Our Sun was a protostar for the first
100,000 years of its life.

Ptolemaic model – a geocentric model of the

universe, proposed by the astronomer Claudius
Ptolemaeus, that utilizes deferents and epicycles
to explain the apparent retrograde motion of some
planets.

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 s sunquake – seismic waves in the Sun’s photosphere
usually caused by solar plasma in prominences falling
shearing – a force derived from the difference in the back into the Sun’s surface with extreme force.
movement of particles within a continuous material.
In the Sun, it is thought to arise in the tachocline sunspot – a dark, relatively cool area on the Sun’s
because of the difference in angular velocity of photosphere where intense magnetic activity
plasma in the radiative zone relative to plasma in the temporarily blocks convection of solar material.
convective zone. Sunspots usually appear in pairs with opposite
polarities.
sidereal rotation – the apparent 24.47-day rotation
period of the Sun as observed from the Earth. It is supernova – the violent explosion of a star as
shorter than the Sun’s actual (synodic) rotation period gravity collapses the structure of atoms at its center,
due to the Earth’s rotation around the Sun. releasing in a short blast as much energy as our Sun
will emit in its lifetime.
solar cycle – the 22-year cyclical change in solar
activity as measured by the number of sunspots synodic rotation – the 26.24-day rotation period of
and degree of solar radiance. The cycle consists of the Sun measured by the time it takes a fixed feature
alternating 11-year periods of solar maximum and at its equator to rotate to the same apparent position
solar minimum. as seen from Earth.

solar flare – the sudden release of electromagnetic

radiation from the Sun due to the rapid superheating
of plasma in the Sun’s atmosphere. Flares are usually
accompanied by a bright flash at the Sun’s surface.
t
solar maximum – an 11-year period of the solar tachocline – the relatively thin transition region
cycle characterized by an increase in solar activity as between the Sun’s radiative and convective zones.
measured by the number of sunspots and the degree Only 28,000-kilometers (about 17,000 miles) thick,
of solar radiance. the tachocline is thought to be the source of much of
the Sun’s magnetic field.
solar minimum – an 11-year period of the solar cycle
characterized by a marked decrease in solar activity telescopic projection – a method, first developed by
as measured by the number of sunspots and the the astronomer Benedetto Castelli, of viewing the Sun
degree of solar radiance. by projecting its image through a telescope and onto
a flat surface.
solar wind – a continuous emission of charged
particles from the upper layers of the Sun’s terawatt – a measure of power equivalent to one
atmosphere that interacts with the Earth’s trillion watts. The total power consumed by humans in
magnetosphere to produce beautiful auroras. 2010 was about 16 terawatts.

spectral signature – the specific combination of thermal runaway – a scenario in which the additional
electromagnetic radiation of various wavelengths thermal energy created by the pressure and gravity
emitted by a source of light that, through of a star’s mass will spark carbon fusion, resulting
spectroscopy, can indicate its composition and in successive, accelerating types of fusion that
relative motion. increasingly condense the star’s core until it collapses
upon itself, causing a supernova.
spectroscopy – the use of spectral signatures to study
the interaction between matter and radiated energy.
It can be used to determine the composition and
relative motion of stars and other celestial bodies.

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 U
ultraviolet (UV) spectrum – a range of
electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths shorter
than violet visible light but longer than X-rays that can
damage human DNA and cause cancer.

v
vector – regarding force, a measure both of its
magnitude and of the direction in which it is
influencing an object.

w
Waldmeier effect – the proposed inverse relationship
between the intensity of a solar cycle and the time it
takes for the sunspot number to rise from minimum
to maximum; for example, the number of sunspots
will increase more rapidly during a strong sun cycle
compared to a weak sun cycle.

white dwarf – a late phase in the life cycle of a main

sequence star, when all fusion reactions have ceased
and the remaining inert carbon-oxygen core emits
stored thermal energy while it slowly dims, until the
star reaches the age of about a quadrillion years.

Wolf number – a standardized measurement of

the number of observed sunspots and groups of
sunspots, factoring for the instrumentation used to
make the observation (and its location).

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 index
Abbot, Charles Greeley, 180 Aztecs, 15, 100
Adams, William, 160
adenosine triphosphate (ATP), 94, 95 Bacon, Roger, 67
Advanced Imaging Assembly (AIA), 16, 18 Bailer-Jones, Coryn, 41
Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer, 180 Becquerel, Alexandre-Edmond, 160
aether spheres, 114. See also Aristotle Berman, Bob, 156, 181
Africa, 101, 116 Berman, Elliot, 161
age Bible, 118, 120, 122
Earth, 186 Big Bang, 14, 25, 26–27
ice, 68, 179, 180–181 binary star systems, 38–39, 40
Sun, 12, 186–187 biography, of Sun, 14
universe, 25, 199 Birkeland, Kristian, 150
AIA. See Advanced Imaging Assembly birth, of Sun
Aldrin, Buzz, 193 Big Bang, 14, 25, 26–27
Alexander the Great, 105 fusion, 36–37
Almagest (Ptolemy), 115 fusion defeated by gravity, 30
Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02), 26 iron 60 controversy and, 35
Alter, David, 128 star nurseries, 28–29
Amaterasu (Japanese Sun goddess), 106 with sun’s long-lost sibling, 14, 38–41
AMS-02. See Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer supernovas and, 31–35
Anaxagoras, 110 black dwarf phase, 187, 199
angular momentum, conservation of, 55–56 black hole, 33, 45, 135
anisotropy (not uniform), 28 blackouts, solar storms and, 173–174
Anningan (Inuit god), 104 blue shift, red shift and, 131
antimatter, 26, 36–37 Book of the Dead, 102
Apollo (Greek Sun god), 12, 105 Boscaglia, Cosimo, 122
Archaea, 93–94 braided plasma, 50, 143
Archimedes, 83, 116, 162 Bunsen, Robert, 129–130
Aristarchus of Samos, 82, 83, 116
Aristotle, 59, 67, 113, 114 Caccini, Tommaso, 122
Armstrong, Neil, 193 calcifediol, 154, 155
astronauts, 72, 78, 136, 193 calendar stone, Aztec, 15, 100
“Astronomical Advantages of an Extra-terrestrial Cambrian explosion, 91, 96
Observatory” (Spitzer), 136 camera
astronomical unit (AU), 85 eye, 91
Atacama Observatory, 132 from Hubble Space Telescope, 136
ATP. See adenosine triphosphate obscura, 67
AU. See astronomical unit cancer, 152–153, 156
aurora australis, 148 Capella, Martianus, 116
aurora borealis, 146, 148 carbon, 30, 33, 44, 128, 194
autism, Vitamin D and, 156 Carrington, Richard, 54, 55, 76, 169

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 Carrington Event, 76, 169. See also coronal cyanobacteria, 96
mass ejections cycles, 30, 47
Cassini, Giovanni, 84, 179 Ptolemy’s epicycles, 115
Cassini Orbiter, 87, 148 solar, 176–181
Cassiopeia A, 31 sunspots, 64
Castelli, Benedetto, 66, 67, 122
Catholic Church, 118, 120–123, 124 da Vinci, Leonardo, 92
Cellarius, Andreas, 119 DARPA. See Defense Advanced Research Projects
cellular respiration, 94 Agency
Celts, 101 Darwin, Charles, 90
Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 156 Day, Richard, 160
Chandra X-ray Observatory, 138, 195 De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the
China, ancient, 12, 59, 66, 67, 103 Revolution of Celestial Spheres) (Copernicus), 118,
120
Chrétien, Henri, 132
Death Star, 40–41
chromophore, 91
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA),
chromosphere, 46, 48, 49, 50 193
circumstellar habitable zone (CHZ), 86–87, 190, 191 degenerate matter, 194
climate change, 14, 180–181 Deloncle, François, 133
clouds, 33, 40–41, 78, 138 de’Medici, Cosimo II, 122
CMEs. See coronal mass ejections Descartes, René, 89
Cnideria, with origins of sight, 90 Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
Cold War, 175 (Galileo), 122, 123
colors, 92, 127–131 differential rotation, 54, 55, 57
comets, 40, 52 Digges, Leonard (father), 124–125
concentrated solar power (CSP) arrays, 157, 162 Digges, Thomas (son), 124–125
cones, eyes, 91, 92 Dioptrice (Kepler), 126
constellations, 134, 192 distance
convective zone, 46, 47, 59 AU, 85
Copernican revolution, 118–120 between Earth and Sun, 11, 82–87
Copernicus, Nicolaus, 23, 116 parallax and, 83–84
core distortions, electromagnetic radiation and, 136
collapse in stars, 30, 33 DNA, human, 152–153, 193
Earth’s, 144 Donato, Leonardo, 125
Sun’s, 46–47, 50, 183, 184, 185, 194 Doppler, Christian, 127, 131
Coriolis effect, 57 dwarfs. See stars
cornea, eyes, 91, 92
corona, 45, 46, 49, 50–51, 61, 69, 190 Earth
coronal hole, 16, 52 age, 186
coronal mass ejections (CMEs), 20, 21, 144, 150, 168, with Cambrian explosion, 91, 96
170, 176 CHZ and, 86, 190
electricity grid and, 166–167 distance from Sun, 11, 82–87
electronics impacted by, 172–173 humanity’s need to escape, 191–193
magnetism and, 74–78 magnetosphere, 144–156, 200
CSP arrays. See concentrated solar power arrays

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 Precambrian era, 96 extraterrestrial life, 86, 87
rotation of, 39–40, 58, 113–123 eyes. See sight, evolution of
Sun’s relationship with, 21, 81, 93–96, 188, 190,
203 Fabricius, David (father), 67
wobble, 40 Fabricius, Johannes (son), 66, 67
Earth Similarity Index (ESI), 192–193 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA),
eclipses, 48, 67, 104 166–168
Eddington, Arthur, 52 A Final Inquiry Concerning the Rectification of Planetary
“Effect of Light on Selenium During the Passage of an Theory (al-Shatir), 116
Electric Current” (Smith, W.), 160 flights, transpolar, 175–176
Egypt, ancient, 12, 83, 102, 115, 116, 118 Fon people, 101
Einhard, 66 Fraunhofer, Joseph von, 129, 130, 131
Einstein, Albert, 161, 193 Freyr (Norse Sun god), 108
electricity grid, modern, 166 Fritts, Charles, 161
Carrington Event, 169 From the Earth to the Moon (Verne), 193
CMEs, 166, 168 fusion
with modern electronics, 172–173 defeated by gravity, 30
Quebec blackout, 174 as energy of combination, 36–37
transformer vulnerability and, 167–168 helium, 30, 33, 185, 194
transpolar flights, 175–176 hydrogen, 29, 30, 33, 36–37, 46, 183, 184–185
electromagnetic radiation, 21, 70, 89, 128, 135, 136 nuclear, 14, 183, 184
electromagnetic storm, 76 with stars and fusion cycles, 30
electron transport chain, 94, 95 future, of Sun
electronics, modern, 14, 172–173, 203 black dwarf phase, 187, 199
electrons, 36–37, 44, 128 explorations, 200–203
elements, 32–33, 44, 130, 184. See also specific nuclear fusion and, 183
elements red giant phase, 185, 187, 188–193
emission, cycle of, 47 running out of gas, 184–187
energy, 12, 26, 29, 36, 94. See also fusion white dwarf phase, 187, 194–197
from magnetic reconnection, 50, 72
from supernovas, 31, 33 Gaia, 105
theory of special relativity and, 193 galaxies, 11
three ways to transfer, 47 disk-like shape of, 28
energy, solar, 16 Milky Way Galaxy, 29, 31, 33, 58, 134
harnessing of, 14, 157–165 Galileo Galilei, 54, 66–67, 121–123, 125–126
output, 46, 53 gamma rays, 21, 70, 72, 151
epicycle, Ptolemy’s, 115 bursts, 33
equinoxes, precession of, 39–40 as kinetic energy of subatomic particles, 36
ESA. See European Space Agency Gan De (Chinese astronomer), 66
ESI. See Earth Similarity Index gas, 38, 93, 137, 184–187
European Solar Thermal Electricity Association Gaussian gravitational constant, 85
(ESTELA), 162
geocentric model, 113, 114, 121
European Space Agency (ESA), 21, 87, 136, 200
Gilbert, William, 59
exoplanets, 141, 191–193
Gleissberg cycle, 177

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 Gliese 581g, 192–193 hydrogen, 47, 128
Global Positioning System (GPS), 167, 173, 201 as element of Sun, 44
Goddard Space Flight Center, 28 fusion, 29, 30, 33, 36–37, 46, 183, 184–185
gods/goddesses. See worship, of Sun
gravity, 21, 30, 38, 188 IBEX. See Interstellar Boundary Explorer
ice age, 68, 179, 180–181
Hammurabi (King of Babylon), 109 IEA. See International Energy Agency
Harmonia Macrocosmica (Cellarius), 119 Incas, 104
HARPS. See High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet India, ancient, 12, 59, 103
Searcher infrared light, 128, 151
Harriot, Thomas, 66, 67 Ingoli, Francesco, 120
Hawking, Stephen, 191 Inquisition, 121, 122–123
heliocentrism, 115 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
Copernican revolution, 118–120 180–181
Galileo, 121–123 International Astronomical Union, 85
Maragha revolution, 116–117 International Energy Agency (IEA), 161
heliomagnetic reversal, 68–69 International Space Station, 26, 78, 146
Heliophysics Great Observatory (HGO), 16, 200. Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX), 148
See also Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Inti (Inca Sun god), 104
Spectrographic Imager; Solar and Heliospheric
Observatory; Solar Dynamics Observatory; Solar Inuits, 104
Terrestrial Relations Observatory ionosphere, 144, 172
Helios (Greek Sun god), 12, 105 IPCC. See Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI), 18 Iran, ancient, 107, 116–117
heliosphere, solar wind and, 53 iron 60, 35
helium, 36–37, 44, 47, 128
fusion, 30, 33, 185, 194 Jansky, Karl, 134, 135
in Sun’s core, 183, 184, 185 Japan, ancient, 106
Hevelius, Johannes, 67, 179 Jupiter (planet), 40, 57, 113, 121, 148
HGO. See Heliophysics Great Observatory Jupiter (Roman Sun god), 12
High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS),
192
Kepler, Johannes, 83, 84, 126, 141
Hindus, ancient, 12, 103
Kepler Space Observatory, 140–141, 191–192
HMI. See Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager
Kepler-62 system, 192
Homer, 105
killer, Sun as, 14, 152–153, 188, 190, 191–193
Hubble Space Telescope, 135, 136–138, 141, 148,
Kirchoff, Gustav, 129–130
194–195
Konârak Sun Temple, 103
Huggins, Margaret, 128
Huggins, William (Sir), 128
La (Polynesian Sun god), 108
Huitzilopochtli (Aztec Sun god), 100
Large Magellanic Cloud, 33
humanity, need to escape, 191–193
Le Morvan, Charles, 133
humans
lens, 91, 92, 124–126, 133
DNA, 152–153, 193
Lewis, Gilbert, 89
sacrifices, 100
life
Huygens, Christiaan, 84

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 extraterrestrial, 86, 87 UV radiation and, 151–153
Sun as sustenance for, 11, 14, 93–96 Vitamin D and, 154–155, 156
light, 28, 51, 88, 132. See also photosynthesis; worship, Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS), 200
of Sun magnetotail, 144
infrared, 128, 151 Malina (Inuit Sun goddess), 104
photosphere and, 46, 47, 48, 49, 62 Maragha revolution, 116–117
sight and, 90–92 Mars, 84, 86, 113, 148, 188
solar power and, 14, 157–165 mass. See also coronal mass ejections
spectroscopy and, 127–131 force and, 56
UV, 128, 151 of Sun, 43, 46, 184, 190
visible, 91, 128, 135, 151 theory of special relativity and, 193
waves, 89, 127 Mather, John, 28
Lippershey, Hans, 124 matter
Little Ice Age, 179, 180 antimatter, 26, 36–37
Liza (West African Sun god), 101 degenerate, 194
lodestone, 59 universe and, 26, 28–29, 44
Lorini, Niccolò, 122 Mauna Kea Observatory, 132
Lucretius Carus, Titus, 88, 89 Maunder, Annie, 179
Lugh (Celtic Sun god), 101 Maunder, Edward, 179
Luther, Martin, 120 Maunder Minimum, 68, 179, 180
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, 41
De Magnete, Magneticisque Corporibus, et de Magno mechanics, law of, 55–56
Magnete Tellure (On the Magnet and Magnetic
Bodies and on the Great Earth Magnet) (Gilbert), 59 Melanchthon, Philipp, 120
magnetic field, 68, 74. See also magnetism Mercury (planet), 113, 116, 188
lines, 49–50, 55, 60–61, 62, 144, 200 Mesoamericans, ancient, 12, 100
SDO and exploration of, 16, 18 Mesopotamia, ancient, 11, 109
Sun’s, 47, 53 Metius, Jacob, 124
magnetic polarity, 21, 68, 78 microwaves, 28, 180
magnetic poles, 145 Milky Way Galaxy, 27, 29, 31, 33, 58, 134
magnetic reconnection, 50, 72 mirrors, 163, 165
magnetism, 59 telescope, 126, 132, 133
CMEs and, 74–78 in warfare, 162
heliomagnetic reversal and, 68–69 Mithra (Iranian Sun god), 107
magnetic field lines and, 49–50, 55, 60–61, 62, MMS. See Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission
144, 200 Moon, 36, 82–83, 88, 113, 133
solar flares and, 70, 72–73 early discoveries, 121
solar wind and, 69, 78 landing, 193
sun quakes and, 76 mythology, 100, 101, 104
sunspots and, 62, 64–67 moons, of Saturn, 87
magnetosheath, 144 movement, 57, 58, 76, 127, 145. See also rotation
magnetosphere, 144, 146, 148, 150, 172 angular momentum, 55–56
magnetic poles, 145 early theories of celestial, 113–123
MMS and, 200 precessional, 39–40

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 red shift / blue shift, 131 Omega Centauri globular star cluster, 27
Mozi (Chinese philosopher), 67 “On Certain Physical Properties of Light Produced by the
mythology, 12, 14, 100, 101, 104. See also worship, of Combustion of Different Metals in an Electric Spark
Sun Refracted by a Prism” (Alter), 128
On the Origin of Species (Darwin), 90

Narratio Prima (First Account) (Rheticus), 120 100 Year Starship (100YSS), 193

NASA, 13, 14, 50, 87, 136, 148. See also observatories; Oort Cloud, 40–41
satellites; specific missions opsin gene, 90–91, 92
DARPA, 100YSS and, 193 Orbiting Solar Observatory (OSO-7), 76
ESA and, 21, 87, 200 Ordovician-Silurian extinction event, 33
HGO and, 16, 200 d’Oresme, Nicole, 116
National Academy of Sciences, 52, 136, 156, 169 Ørsted, Hans Christian, 59
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Osiander, Andreas, 120
(NOAA), 173, 174, 176, 181 OSO-7. See Orbiting Solar Observatory
Naval Research Laboratory, 76 oxygen, 30, 32, 44, 94–96, 128
nebulae, 28, 32, 34, 137, 186, 194–195 Oxygen Catastrophe, 96
Nemesis, 40–41 ozone, 153, 178
Neptune (planet), 40, 148
neutrino, 36–37 P680 molecules, 94, 95
Newton, Isaac (Sir), 40, 89, 126, 132 Pantometria (Digges, T.), 124–125
NGC 3603, 29 parallax, 83–84
NGC 6121, 27 Paris Observatory, 133
Nicholas of Cusa (Cardinal), 116 Parker, Eugene, 52
nitrogen, 44, 128 particle theory, light, 89
NOAA. See National Oceanic and Atmospheric Paul V (Pope), 122
Administration
periodic table, 184
Norse Sun god, 108
Philolaus, 116
nuclear fusion, 14, 183, 184
photons, 47, 89, 128. See also light
Nuremberg Chronicle (Schedel), 116
photosphere, 46, 47, 48, 49, 62
nurseries, stars, 28–29
photosynthesis, 14, 93–96
photovoltaic (PV) cells, 159, 160–161
observatories
Picard, Jean, 179
Atacama, 132
Planck, Max, 89
Chandra X-ray Observatory, 138, 195
planets, 57, 115, 116, 192. See also specific planets
HGO, 16, 200
exoplanets, 141, 191–193
Kepler Space Observatory, 140–141, 191–192
Gliese 581g, 192–193
Mauna Kea, 132
plasma, 44–45, 51, 59, 61, 194
OSO-7, 76
braided, 50, 143
Paris, 133
magnetic fields and, 68, 74
SDO, 13, 16, 18, 51, 54, 60–61, 64, 67, 68, 72,
73, 75, 170, 178 from solar flares, 12, 60, 65, 70
SOHO, 21, 59, 76–77, 150 temperature, 47, 48, 53
STEREO, 20, 76 Plato, 113
Odyssey (Homer), 105 Pluto, 190
polarity, 21, 62, 64, 68, 78

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 pollution, light, 132 X-, 21, 70, 151
Polynesians, 108 Re (Egyptian Sun god), 102
positron, 36–37 reabsorption, cycle of, 47
power, of Sun Reber, Grote, 134
with braided plasma, 143 Recombination Era, 28
Earth’s magnetosphere and, 144–156 red dwarf, 39, 41
modern electricity grid, 166–176 red giant phase, 187
solar cycle, 176–181 Earth swallowed by Sun, 188, 190
solar power, 14, 157–165 helium core fusion and, 185
Precambrian era, 96 humanity’s need to escape, 191–193
precessional movement, 39–40 Kepler-62 system, 192
A Prognostication Everlasting (Digges, L.), 124 outer swelling of Sun, 185, 189, 190
proton-proton chain reaction, 36–37 10 billion to 11 billion years, 188
protostar, 29, 35, 36, 186 red shift, blue shift and, 131
PS20 solar power tower, 163 relativity, theory of special, 193
Ptolemaeus, Claudius (Ptolemy), 83 Republic (Plato), 113
Ptolemaic model and, 115, 116, 118 retrograde motion, 115
pulsar, 32, 135 Reuven Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectrographic
PV arrays. See solar photovoltaic arrays Imager (RHESSI), 21

PV cells. See photovoltaic cells Rheticus, Georg, 120

Ritchey, George Willis, 132

quadrupolarity, 68 rods, eyes, 91, 92

quantum mechanics, 89 Romans, ancient, 12, 88, 102, 105, 107

quarks, 36 Roscoe, Henry (Sir), 130

quasars, 135 rotation

angular momentum and, 55–56

Ra (Polynesian Sun god), 108 differential, 54, 55, 57

radiation Earth’s, 39–40, 58, 113–123

electromagnetic, 21, 70, 89, 128, 135, 136 planets, 116

from iron-60, 35 sidereal vs. synodic, 55

solar flares and, 72 solar wind and, 78

sunspots and, 65 Spindle of Necessity and, 113

UV, 16, 33, 70, 90, 151–153, 178 Sun’s structure and, 54–58

UVA, 153 wobble and, 40, 57

UVB, 153, 154, 155, 178 Royal Astronomical Society, 52, 76

Van Allen radiation belt, 144–145

zone, 46, 47, 59 sacrifices, human, 100

radio astronomy, 134–135 Sagan, Carl, 32, 197

radio waves, 72 The Sand Reckoner (Archimedes), 116

radioisotopes, 33, 35 satellites, 48, 160, 161, 173, 180. See also observatories

Rawls, Alec, 181 Saturn (planet), 40, 87, 113, 148

rays Schedel, Hartmann, 116

gamma, 21, 33, 36, 70, 72, 151 Scheiner, Christoph, 14, 66–67, 126

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 Schroder, Klaus-Peter, 190 solar PV arrays, 157, 158–159
Schwabe, Samuel Heinrich, 176 tower, 157, 163
SDO. See Solar Dynamics Observatory Solar Probe Plus, 127, 201
selenium, 160–161 Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment (SORCE), 180
Serarius, Nicolaus, 120 Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), 20, 76
Sfondrati, Paolo Emilio (Cardinal), 122 solar weather. See weather, solar
Shamash (Mesopotamian Sun god), 109 solar wind. See wind, solar
al-Shatir, Ibn, 116 SolO. See Solar Orbiter
siblings, of Sun, 14, 38–41 SORCE. See Solar Radiation and Climate Experiment
sidereal rotation, 55 sound waves, 89, 127
Sidereus Nuncius (The Starry Messenger) (Galileo), 121 space shuttles, 136
sight, evolution of, 90–92 space-based telescopes, 27, 136–138
silicon, 32, 35, 44, 158, 159 spacecrafts, 16, 136. See also observatories; satellites;
skin cancer, 152–153 specific spacecrafts

Small Magellanic Cloud, 138 spectroscopy, 38, 127–131

Smith, Robert C., 190 speed, 58, 76. See also movement

Smith, Willoughby, 160 Spindle of Necessity, 113

Smooth, George, 28 Spitzer, Lyman, 136

SOHO. See Solar and Heliospheric Observatory stars, 27, 43, 138. See also specific stars

Sol (Roman Sun god), 12, 105 in binary star systems, 38–39, 40

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), 21, 59, black dwarf phase, 187, 199
76–77 core collapse in, 30, 33
solar cycle, 176–181 nurseries, 28–29
Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), 13, 18, 51, 60–61, protostar, 29, 35, 36, 186
72, 178 red dwarf, 39, 41
CMEs and, 75 red giant phase, 187, 188–193
solar flares and, 16, 73, 170 Sun as, 11, 203
sunspots and, 54, 64, 67, 68 supernovas, 31–35, 194
solar energy. See energy, solar when gravity defeats fusion, 30
solar flares, 14 white dwarf, 30, 40, 187, 194–197
classifications, 72–73 STEREO. See Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory
midlevel, 13 storms. See also coronal mass ejections
plasma from, 12, 60, 65, 70 electromagnetic, 76
RHESSI and, 21 solar, 150, 166–167, 168, 173–174
SDO and images of, 16, 73, 170 THEMIS, 150
solar maximum / minimum, 177, 178 subatomic particles, 36–37. See also specific subatomic
Solar Orbiter (SolO), 60, 200 particles
solar photovoltaic (PV) arrays, 157, 158–159 A Substitute for Fuel in Tropical Countries (Adams and
solar power Day), 160

CSP arrays, 157, 162 sulfur, 32, 44

harnessing of, 14, 157–165 Sun

invention of photovoltaic cells, 159 age of, 12, 186–187

with largest solar furnace, 165 distance from Earth, 11, 82–87

PV cells, 159, 160–161 Earth’s relationship with, 21, 81, 93–96, 188,

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 190, 203 invention of, 83, 124–126
as killer, 14, 152–153, 188, 190, 191–193 telescopes, modern, 64, 132
as life sustaining, 11, 14, 93–96 first giant telescope, 133
mass of, 43, 46, 184, 190 Hubble Space Telescope, 135, 136–138, 141,
siblings of, 14, 38–41 148, 194–195

Sun, history of, 140–141 radio astronomy and, 134–135

heliocentrism, 116–123 solar optical, 48

models, 113, 114, 115, 121 space-based, 27, 136–138

spectroscopy, 127–131 temperature, 28, 62, 181

Sun, layers of, 44 chromosphere, 48, 49, 50

chromosphere, 46, 48, 49, 50 core, 50, 194

convective zone, 46, 47, 59 corona, 49, 51

core, 46–47, 50, 183, 184, 185, 194 photosphere, 49

corona, 45, 46, 49, 50–51, 69, 190 plasma, 47, 48, 53

energy transferred three ways, 47 Sun’s, 46, 47, 49–50

photosphere, 46, 47, 48, 49, 62 Titan’s surface, 87

radiative zone, 46, 47, 59 Thales of Miletus, 59

temperature variations, 46, 47, 49–50 THEMIS. See Time History of Events and Macroscale
Interactions During Substorms
Sun, structure of, 43
Theophrastus, 66
layers, 44–51
30 Doradus. See Tarantula Nebula
magnetism, 59–78
Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions
rotation, 54–58 During Substorms (THEMIS), 150
solar wind, 52–53 Titan Saturn System Mission (TSSM), 87
sun quakes, 76 Tonatiuh (Aztec Sun god), 15, 100
Sun-Earth L1 Point, 21 tower, solar power, 157, 163
Suns, Ten, 103 transformers, vulnerability, 167, 168
sunspots, 14, 20, 46, 49, 54, 68, 181 transpolar flights, 175–176
discovery of, 66–67, 169 Tres Epistolae Maculis Solaribus Scriptae ad Marcum
magnetism and, 62, 64–67 Welserum (Three Letters on Solar Spots Written to
Marc Welser) (Scheiner), 66
solar cycle and, 176–177, 178, 179
Tsohanoai (Navajo Sun god), 107
supernovas, 31, 34
TSSM. See Titan Saturn System Mission
with core collapse, 30, 33
al-Tusi, Nasir al-Din, 116–117
iron 60 controversy and, 35
supernova nucleosynthesis and, 32–33
ultraviolet (UV) light, 128, 151
white dwarf and, 194
ultraviolet (UV) radiation, 16, 33, 70, 90, 151–153, 178
Surya (Hindu Sun god), 103
universe, 58
Sushruta (Indian surgeon), 59
age of, 25, 199
synodic rotation, 55
with antimatter, 26
Big Bang and, 14, 25, 26–27
tachocline, 46, 47, 57, 59, 60
with matter, 26, 28–29, 44
Tarantula Nebula (30 Doradus), 34
theories of, 113–123
telescopes, 14, 121. See also specific telescopes
Uranus (planet), 40, 148
aerial, 84

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 Urban VIII (Pope), 122, 123 Fon: Liza, 101
UV. See radiation; ultraviolet light; ultraviolet radiation Greeks: Helios and Apollo, 12, 105
Hindu: Surya, 103
V838 Monocerotis, 138 Inca: Inti, 104
Van Allen radiation belt, 144–145 Inuit: Malina, 104
Venus (planet), 113, 116, 188 Iranian: Mithra, 107
Verne, Jules, 193 Japanese: Amaterasu, 106
Very Large Array (VLA), 134, 135 Mesopotamian: Shamash, 109
visible light, 91, 128, 135, 151 Navajo: Tsohanoai, 107
Vita Karoli Magni (The Life of Charlemagne) (Einhard), Norse: Freyr, 108
66 Polynesian: Ra or La, 108
Vitamin D, 154–156
VLA. See Very Large Array X-43A, 43, 44, 46
Vulcan, 176 X-class flares, 72–73
Xi He (Chinese Sun goddess), 103
Waldmeier effect, 177 X-rays, 21, 70, 151
warfare, mirrors in, 162
wavelengths, 18, 49, 73, 89, 91, 151
waves
light, 89, 127
microwaves, 28, 180
radio, 134–135
sound, 89, 127
weather, solar, 21, 173, 176
Welser, Marc, 66–67
Wheatstone, Charles, 128
white dwarfs, 30, 40, 187, 194, 195
Wickins, John, 89
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), 28
wind, solar, 16, 144, 145, 201
magnetism and, 69, 78
Sun’s structure and, 52–53
WMAP. See Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
wobble, 40, 57
Wolf, Rudolf, 176–177
Wolf Number, 176
Wollaston, William H., 129
worship, of Sun, 12, 99
Aztec: Huitzilopochtli, 100
Aztec: Tonatiuh, 15, 100
Celtic: Lugh, 101
Chinese: Xi He and Ten Suns, 103
Egyptian: Re, 102

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 photo credits
Front cover: NASA/SDO p. 35: NASA/CXC/M. Weiss pp. 127, 179: Hulton Archive/
Getty Images
Back cover: Paul Wootton/Science Photo p. 38: NASA/JPL-Caltech/
Library (SDO spacecraft); NASA/ Univ. of Michigan p. 133: French School/The Bridgeman
SDO (Sun) Art Library/Getty Images
pp. 39, 58, 196–197: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Title page: NASA, ESA, and J. Maiz p. 135: NASA, ESA, S. Baum and C.
Apellániz (Instituto de Astrofisica de p. 40: NASA/GSFC/Robert Simmon O’Dea (RIT), R. Perley and W. Cotton
Andalucia, Spain) p. 48T: Hinode JAXA/NASA/PPARC (NRAO/AUI/NSF), and the Hubble
Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
pp. 10–11, 18, 19, 61T, 70–71, 72B, 74, pp. 48B, 64T: Hinode JAXA/NASA
170T/B: NASA/SDO/GSFC pp. 136T/B: NASA/STScI
pp. 54T, 84, 92, 122, 169: SSPL via
pp. 7, 9, 12, 13, 42–43, 49, 51, 52, Getty Images p. 137: NASA/ESA/M. Livio and the
60T/B, 61B, 62, 64B, 65T/B, 67L, Hubble 20th Anniversary Team
69, 72T, 73, 75, 80–81, 98–99, p. 54B: NASA/SDO/HMI (STScI)
112–113, 151, 157, 172 (Sun, pp. 62–63: NASA/TRACE via Astronomy
SDO), 176, 178, 182–183, 202– p. 138: NASA and the Hubble Heritage
Picture of the Day Team (AURA/STScI)
203, 204: NASA/SDO
p. 68: NASA/GSFC p. 139: NASA, ESA, CXC, and the
p. 14, 83B, 114, 116, 123, 124T, 125,
129, 130T, 130B, 134T: Universal p. 86: NASA/Image created by Reto University of Potsdam, JPL-Caltech,
Images Group/Getty Images Stockli with the help of Alan Nelson, and STScI
under the leadership of Fritz Hasler pp. 140–141: NASA/Kepler Mission/
p. 15T: Leemage/UIG via Getty Images
p. 87: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona Wendy Stenzel
p. 15B, 32BG, 37BG, 56, 57, 59, 66,
67R, 82, 83T, 88L/R, 89, 90, 91BG, pp. 100B, 161: National Geographic/ pp. 142–143: NASA/SDO/AIA/S.
92 (eye), 93, 95 (chloroplast), 96, Getty Images Weissinger
97, 100T, 102, 107B, 121, 128 p. 145: NASA/Johns Hopkins University
(prism), 129BG, 131 (telescope), p. 101T: Werner Forman/UIG via
Getty Images Applied Physics Laboratory
132, 134B, 149, 152, 153T/B,
154, 156, 158, 159BG, 159 (bulb), p. 101B: Lugh’s Enclosure, illustration p. 148: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
162T/B, 163, 166, 168, 172 from the book Celtic Myth and pp. 164–165: H. Zell, Wikimedia
(satellites, plane, power plant and Legend, Poetry and Romance by Commons
towers, car, laptop, Earth), 175 Charles Squire, published in 1905
(globe), 185BG, 186 (nebula), 190, (color litho), after Ernest Wallcousins p. 173: Jonathan Fickies/Getty Images
endpaper: Thinkstock (1883–1976)/Private Collection/Ken p. 174L/R: NASA/Earth Observatory/
p. 16: NASA/GSFC Conceptual Welsh/The Bridgeman Art Library Courtesy Chris Elvidge,
Image Lab p. 103: Annie Owen/Getty Images U.S. Air Force
pp. 17, 22–23, 24–25: NASA/SDO/AIA p. 104: Michael Langford/Getty Images p. 181: Dan Pisut/NOAA Environmental
Visualization Lab/Adapted from the
p. 20T: NASA/STEREO p. 105: DEA/A. Dagli Orti/Getty Images 11/2012 Global Climate Report
pp. 20B, 26, 50, 110–111, 146–147, p. 106: Uzuma awakens the curiosity of from NOAA’s National Climatic Data
150, 160, 180, 193B: NASA Ama-terasu, illustration from The Center (NCDC)

pp. 21, 45, 46, 76, 77, 79, 144, Myths and Legends of Japan by F. p. 184: NASA/JAXA
170–171: SOHO (ESA & NASA) Hadland Davis, 1918 (color litho),
Evelyn Paul (1870–1954)/Private p. 191: NASA/Kepler Mission
p. 27: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 Collection/The Stapleton Collection/ p. 192: NASA Ames/JPL-Caltech
ERO Team The Bridgeman Art Library
p. 193T: NASA/Lynette Cook
p. 28: ESA and the Planck Collaboration pp. 107T, 108T, 109: De Agostini/
Getty Images p. 194: NASA, W. Sparks (STScI) and R.
p. 29: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Sahai (JPL)
Heritage Team p. 108B: Oliver Frey/The Bridgeman Art
Library/Getty Images p. 195: NASA/CXC/SAO (X-ray), NASA/
p. 30: NASA/CXC/Rutgers/J. Warren et STScI (optical)
al. (X-ray), NASA/STScI/U Ill/Y Chu pp. 117, 118–119: British Library/
(optical), ATCA/U ILL/J. Dickel et al. Robana via Getty Images pp. 198–199: NASA, ESA, and H. Richer
(radio) (University of British Columbia)
p. 120: UIG via Getty Images
p. 31: NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI/CXC/SAO p. 200: NASA/Southwest Research
p. 124B: Jay M. Pasachoff/Getty Images Institute
p. 32: NASA, ESA, J. Hester, A. Loll
(ASU) p. 126T: Gianni Tortoli/Getty Images p. 201: NASA/MSFC/Janet Salverson
p. 33: NASA/Skyworks Digital p. 126B: Telescope belonging to Sir Isaac
Newton (1642–1727) 1671, English
p. 34: NASA/CXC/PSU/L. Townsley et School/Royal Society, London, UK/
al. (X-ray, infrared), NASA/STScI The Bridgeman Art Library
(optical)

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