Blog 3- The Sun and its Core!

Layers of the Sun

As I was growing up, I never truly understood what the sun exactly was. I had understood that it emitted light and eventually I learned that it was basically a big ball of really really REALLY hot gasses. However I never understood the intricacies behind the Sun’s structure. The most interesting part of the sun’s structure to me is its core. Within the core, we can learn how the sun produces massive amounts of energy output that results from the extremely high temperatures and densities created by the surrounding gas. In the process of nuclear fusion, hydrogen atoms slam into one another creating the energy that escapes the sun and is seen as visible light by us on Earth. This process is extremely interesting as it is balanced by the inward gravitational pull of the star. Knowing the different layers of the sun have different levels of pressure and how the core creates a unique process of fusion is extremely fascinating to me and will have me looking a little differently at that great ball of fire we see in our sky every day.

Source: NASA MSFC