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Sun
This large golden ball is the Sun at one 10-billionth actual size. The Sun is a star with a system of 8 planets. If the Sun were this big, how far away would the planets be?
Look at the map on the lower panel to find your position in the solar system.
Voyage to the Sun
The Sun's surface is a turbulent sea of hot gas. Blinding light pours up from below, created a million years earlier at the core of this vast ball of mostly hydrogen and helium. The surface temperature can approach 11,000°F (6,100°C), hot enough to vaporize anything.
From the Solar Tempest
At any moment, from a solar storm large enough to wallow a hundred Earths, a cataclysmic eruption--a Coronal Mass Ejection--can explode into space at speeds up to 900 miles per second (1,500 km/sec). It can reach Earth in days and ignite an eerie light show in the far northern and southern skies: the aurorae.
The Power Source of the Solar System
You are reading this in light that left the Sun 8 minutes ago. Light from the Sun bathes the solar system, reaching distant Neptune in 4 hours. When sunlight reaches the planets, it powers weather systems and creates climates. The Sun's energy also makes something else possible--life on Earth.
Walk to Mercury about 9 steps
Imagine
The entire orbit of the Moon around the Earth fits inside the Sun.
In the real solar system, the planets never line up as they orbit the Sun.
Voyage is an exhibition of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education and the Smithsonian Institution. It is designed for permanent installation in communities worldwide.
http://voyagesolarsystem.org |