The Life Giving Sun –

The Electromagnetic
Spectrum,
The Structure and
Nuclear Fusion
Group 1

 Ang, Czarina Alexis

 Ambeguia, Rachelle
 Aquino, Kim Rae
 Abalos, Agnes
 Arriaga, Shyane Agatha
 Albores, Mechelle
 Aballa, Bianca
 Asistol, Vincent Paul
Introduction

 The sun was born about 4.6 billion years ago

 Diameter - 1,390,000 km
 Mass - 1.989e30 kg
 Temperature - 5800 K (surface) , 15,600,000 (core)
 It contains more than 99.8 % of the total mass of the Solar System
 109 times the diameter of the Earth
 Greek called it "Helios" and the Romans called it "Sol"
 The Sun at present is about 70 % hydrogen and 28 % helium by mass
everything else (metals) amounts to lee than 2 %
 Sun's core temperature - 15.6 million Kelvin and the Pressure is 250 billion
atmosphere
 Sun's power - 386 billion mege watts produced by nuclear fusion reaction
 Each second, about 700,000,000 tons of hydrogen are converted to about
695,000,000 tons of helium and 5,000,000 tons of energy in the form of
gamma rays
 Visible part of the sun is about 10,000° F (5,500°C)
 The sun is one of more than 100 billion stars in the Milky Way
 It orbits some 25,000 light years fron the galactic core completibg a
revolution once every 250 million years or so.
Ang, Czarina Alexis

ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM- is a range of electromagnetic waves arranged

according to frequency or wavelengths.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES

RADIO WAVES- have the longest wavelength in the electromagnetic spectrum.

And it has the least frequency and energy and ranging from about one millimeter to
hundred meters.

Examples:

Radio, satellites, radar and computer networks.

MICROWAVES- like radio waves, microwaves also transmit energy. Microwaves of
shorter wavelength are used in remote sensing or weather forecasting. And it is
measured in centimeters. Microwaves can penetrate smog , light rain or clouds.

INFRARED- Producing or using rays of light that cannot be seen. Infrared spans
from frequencies of about 300 gigahertz to about 400 terahertz. This is the same
as a range of wavelength from one milimeter to 750 nanometers. Infrared waves
are sometimes classified as "near" infrared and "far" infrared.

Near infrared waves- waves that arr closer to visible light in wavelength.

Far infrared waves- waves that further away from visible light in wavelength.

Ambeguia, Rachelle

Visible: Light that can be seen by the naked eyes, when white light shines through
a prism, the white light is broken apart into the colors of the visible light spectrum

Ex. Fireflies, light bulbs, and stars all emit visible light.

Ultraviolet: Ultraviolet radiation is emitted by the Sun and are the reason skin
tans and burns. "Hot" objects in space emit UV radiation as well. Ultraviolet (UV)
light has shorter wavelengths than visible light. Though these waves are invisible to
the human eye, some insects, like bumblebees, can see them.

Three regions of UV:

 Near ultraviolet (NUV) - the light closest to optical or visible light.

 Far ultraviolet (FUV) - the most energetic of the three types lies between
the near and extreme ultraviolet regions
 Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) - is the ultraviolet light closest to X-rays

X-ray: A dentist uses X-rays to image your teeth, and airport security uses them
to see through your bag. Hot gases in the Universe also emit X-rays. As the
wavelengths of light decrease, they increase in energy. X-rays have smaller
wavelengths and therefore higher energy than ultraviolet waves.

Gamma ray: Doctors use gamma-ray imaging to see inside your body. The biggest
gamma-ray generator of all is the Universe. Gamma-rays have the smallest
wavelengths and the most energy of any other wave in the electromagnetic
spectrum. These waves are generated by radioactive atoms and in nuclear
explosions.

Gamma-rays are the most energetic form of light and are produced by the hottest
regions of the universe. They are also produced by such violent events as supernova
explosions or the destruction of atoms.

Aquino, Kim Rae

Sunspot- Are darker, cooler areas on the surface of the sun I a region called
photosphere.

-It temperature is about 3,800 degrees K.

-Can be large, up to 50,000 in diameter.

-Sunspot occur over regions of intense magnetic activity, and when that energy is
released, solar

flares and big storms called Coronal mass ejection erupt from sunspot.

Filaments– Are larger regions of a very dense, cool gas, held by magnetic fields.
Sometimes magnetic field in the solar atmosphere holds up solar plasma from the
chromosphere into the solar corona.

-They appear dark due to they are cooler than their surroundings.

Prominence- Same thing with filaments, the part hanging out past the edge is
brighter than an empty space behind it.

Corona Holes– Are areas where the sun’s corona is colder hence

darker. Corona holes are part of the sun and are constantly changing and reshaping
because the corona is not uniform.

Effects and Danger

Solar flares

- The solar flares and coronal mass ejections emit powerful radiation and hurl
energetic particles into interplanetary space, producing gusts and squalls in the
perpetual solar winds blowing from the sun. We are shielded from this space
weather by the Earth’s atmosphere and magnetic fields, which keep us safe. But
out in deep space there is no place to hide, and both humans and satellites are
vulnerable.

Sunspot

-Sunspots are not by themselves directly related to the Earth’s weather, but the
active regions in which they are immersed do result in violent explosions that
produce space weather.

Coronal Holes

-The open configuration of the magnetic in coronal hole allows particles to escape,
and it is found that these holes are source of high speed solar wind stream. when
particles from the streams hit the earth they may cause Geomagnetic Storm.

This geomagnetic storm can disrupt power, navigation, and radio communication on
earth.

Abalos, Agnes

Solar Atmosphere

Photosphere

The material that reaches the top of the convection zone cools by giving of light.
This region of the Sun is the first part of the Sun that is visible to us and we call
it the photosphere. This is where the light we see from the Sun originates. If we
could look at the Sun directly (never stare at the Sun without the proper
equipment) we would see the photosphere. Even though the layer is not solid we call
this part of the Sun the surface and it is also where the solar atmosphere starts.
Its temperature is around 5,800 Celsius or 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Chromosphere

Above the photosphere is a layer of the atmosphere about 2,000 km thick called
the chromosphere. The temperature increases as you move higher to about 20,000
degrees Celsius at the top of the chromosphere. The chromosphere is no longer
white light like the photosphere but is mostly red in visible light. It can be seen as
red flashes during a total solar eclipse.

Corona

The highest part of the solar atmosphere is called the corona. The corona starts
around 10,000 km above the solar photosphere. Unlike the atmosphere of the
Earth the atmosphere of the Sun continues to get hotter as you move away from
the solar surface. The answer of why exactly this happens is one of the biggest
questions of astronomy and solar physics of the 20th and 21st centuries. At
20,000-25,000 km away from the solar surface the corona has an average
temperature of 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 million degrees Celsius. But the density is
very low, about 1 billion times less dense than water.
Arriaga, Shyane Agatha

The inner Layers of the sun

Our sun is the closest star to Earth and

the source of energy for all life here.
The sun has been so important to humans
that it has been celebrated and
worshiped since ancient times.

The core is the very center of the sun

where fusion occurs. The core has extremely high temperature and pressure.

The sun produces so much energy that according to NASA, it can melt a block of
ice one mile wide by two miles long in just one second. The core is the hottest part
of the sun and the only part of the sun that produces much energy.

The next layer of the sun is the radiative zone, the layer of the sun directly above
the core. This zone, as you can probably guess, emits radiation, and the radiation
from the core diffuses out from here. The convective zone. In this layer, photons
produced by fusion in the core make their way to the surface of the sun through
convection.

Albores, Mechelle
 Solar Activity
1. Solar Wind
 The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the
outer atmosphere of the Sun, Corona.
 This plasma consists of mostly electrons, protons and alpha particles.
 Its particles can escape the Sun's gravity because of their high energy
resulting from the high temperature of the corona, which in turn is a result
of the coronal magnetic field.
 These particles have gained enough energy to fill the heliosphere, a region
of space that extends well past the orbit of Pluto.
 Sometimes concentrated high-speed solar wind streams come from the Sun and
impacts the Earth. These can produce magnetic disturbances in the Earth’s
upper atmosphere called a Geomagnetic Storm and produce the Southern and
Northern Lights (The Aurora)

 Types of Solar Wind (FAST & SLOW)

Astronomers recognize two types of solar wind, distinguished by their speed.

 The Fast Solar Wind is known to originate from coronal hole regions near the
sun's poles and travel at about 1.8 million miles per hour (2.9 million kilometers
per hour).

 The Slow Solar Wind is from the equatorial region of the sun (known as the
"streamer belt") at about 432,000 mph to 1.1 million mph (720,000 kph to 1.8
million kph)

2. Solar Flare
 A solar flare occurs when magnetic energy that has built up in the solar
atmosphere is suddenly released.

 Stages to Solar Flares

1. Precursor Stage - where the release of magnetic energy is triggered. Soft
x-ray emission is detected in this stage.
2. In the second or impulsive stage, protons and electrons are accelerated to
energies exceeding 1 MeV. During the impulsive stage, radio waves, hard x-
rays, and gamma rays are emitted.
 3. The gradual build up and decay of soft x-rays can be detected in the
third, decay stage.

Impact of Solar Flares

 Solar flares are the most energetic explosions in the solar system.
 Solar flares have a direct effect on the Earth's atmosphere
 Long distance radio signals can be disrupted by the resulting change in the
Earth's ionosphere.
 Energetic particles accelerated in solar flares that escape into
interplanetary space are dangerous to astronauts and to electronic
instruments in space.

 Categories of Solar Flares

Scientists classify solar flares according to their brightness in the x-ray
wavelengths.
a) X-class flares are big; they are major events that can trigger radio
blackouts around the whole world and long-lasting radiation storms in
the upper atmosphere.
b) M-class flares are medium-sized; they generally cause brief radio
blackouts that affect Earth's polar regions. Minor radiation storms
sometimes follow an M-class flare.
c) Compared to X- and M-class events, C-class flares are small with few
noticeable consequences here on Earth.

3. Coronal Mass Ejection

 Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are huge explosions of magnetic field and
plasma from the Sun's corona.

 Caused by instabilities in the sun’s magnetic field, they can launch a billion
tons of superheated gas into space at over one million miles per hour.

 CMEs can occur when filaments/prominences become unstable and fly away
from the Sun. We call this a filament/prominence eruption.

 When CMEs impact the Earth’s magnetosphere, they are responsible for
geomagnetic storms and enhanced aurora.
4. Solar Energetic Particles
 Solar energetic particles (SEP) are high-energy particles coming from the
Sun.
 They consist of protons, electrons and HZE ions with energy ranging from a
few tens of keV to GeV (the fastest particles can reach 80% of the speed of
light).
 Solar energetic particles can originate either from a solar-flare site or
by shock waves associated with coronal mass ejections (CMEs). However, only
about 1% of CMEs produce strong SEP events.
 Solar Energetic Particles (SEPs) are an important hazard to spacecraft
systems and constrain human activities in space.
 Primary radiation sources are energetic protons and heavy ions during SEP
events, with energies up to few hundreds of MeVs, being protons the most
abundant specie
 SEP events are conventionally classified into two loosely defined categories:
impulsive and gradual.
Aballa, Bianca

Fusion occurs when two light atoms bond together, or fuse, to make a heavier
one. In order for the nuclei of two atoms to overcome the aversion to one another
caused their having the same charge, high temperatures and pressures are
required. Temperatures must reach approximately six times those found in the
core of the sun. At this heat, the hydrogen is no longer a gas but a plasma, an
extremely high-energy state of matter where electrons are stripped from their
atoms. Fusion is the dominant source of energy for stars in the universe. It is also
a potential energy source on Earth. Cooking up energy There are several "recipes"
for cooking up fusion, which rely on different atomic combinations. Proton-proton
fusion: The dominant driver for stars like the sun with core temperatures under 27
million degrees F (15 million degrees C), proton-proton fusion begins with two
protons and ultimately yields high energy particles such as positrons, neutrinos, and
gamma rays. Deuterium-deuterium fusion: Theoretically more promising than
deuterium-tritium because of the ease of obtaining the two deuterium atoms, this
method is also more challenging because it requires temperatures too high to be
feasible at present. However, the process yields more energy than deuterium-
tritium fusion. Deuterium-Tritium fusion: The most promising combination for
power on Earth today is the fusion of a deuterium atom with a tritium one. The
process, which requires temperatures of approximately 72 million degrees F (39
million degrees Celsius), produces 17.6 million electron volts of energy.

Asistol, Vincent Paul