The SUN &

its
PHYSICS………

Sridhar Singam
Introduction
General Properties
Luminosity, Watts, Joules, and
Calories
Luminosity
The energy an object radiates per unit time. So, it is a measure of
power.
Watt
Unit of power. One watt is one Joule per second.
Joule
Unit of energy.
• Lifting a 1 kg (2.2 lb) mass up by 10 cm (4 inches) on the surface of
Earth would requires 1 joule of energy.
1 Calories = 4.2 Joules.

The Sun generates 9  1025 calories of energy every second, or

90,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 calories per second.
Blackbody
 A blackbody is an object that absorbs all
electromagnetic radiation on it. It also
irradiate a thermal radiation according to
its temperature.
Internal structure of SUN
The Internal Structure of the Sun
Core
1. The region where nuclear fusion takes
place to generate the solar energy.
2. T ~ 15 million degrees K.
Radiation Zone
3. Energy is transported outward primarily
by photons traveling through this region.
4. T ~ 10 million degrees K and decreases
outward.
5. No nuclear fusion.
Convection Zone
6. Energy is transported through
convection: hot gas rises, irradiates their
energy, and becomes cold. Cold gas sink
to the bottom.
Example at home: boiling water.
Example at play: glider and hang-glider.
 The Sun
                
From Core to Corona
Layers of the Sun
 Solar Envelope

Outside of the core is the radiative envelope, which is

surrounded by the convective envelope. Radiative
Zone is about 185,000 miles thick. Convection Zone
is about 130,000 miles thick. Protons do a “Random
Walk” delaying their exit for thousands to millions of
years.

The temperature is 4 million degrees Kelvin (7 million

degrees F).

The density of the solar envelope is much less than

that of the core. The core contains 40 percent of the
sun's mass in 10 percent of the volume, while the
solar envelope has 60 percent of the mass in 90
percent of the volume.

The solar envelope puts pressure on the core and

maintains the core's temperature.
 Convection Zone
"Convective cells are arranged in tiers
containing cells of progressively smaller
size as the surface is neared.
 Photosphere
The photosphere is the zone from which the sunlight we see is emitted.

The photosphere is a comparatively thin layer of low pressure gasses

surrounding the envelope.

It is only a few hundred kilometers thick, with a temperature of 6000 K.

The composition, temperature, and pressure of the photosphere are revealed

by the spectrum of sunlight.

In fact,
helium was discovered in
1896 by William Ramsey,
when in analyzing the solar
spectrum he found features
that did not belong to any gas
known on earth.

The newly-discovered gas was

named helium in honor of Helios,
the mythological Greek god of
the sun.
                
From Core to Corona
Layers of the Sun
 Chromosphere

In an eclipse, a red circle around the outside of the sun

can sometimes can be seen.

This is the chromosphere. Its red coloring is caused by

the abundance of hydrogen.

From the center of the sun to the chromosphere, the

temperature decreases proportionally as the distance
from the core increases.

The chromosphere's temperature, however, is 7000 K,

hotter than that of the photosphere.

Temperatures continue to increase through the corona.

 Hot Stuff
Sun’s core is about 27 million degrees F and is
about ten times the density of Lead.

Each second it fuses 600 Megatons of Hydrogen

into 595 Megatons of Helium.

The mass difference is 5 Million tons of energy,

which is the equivalent of about 1 Billion 1 MT H-
Bombs..
 Sunspots

Sunspots are dark spots on the photosphere, typically with

the same diameter as the Earth.

They have cooler temperatures than the photosphere. The

center of a spot, the umbra, looks dark gray if heavily
filtered and is only 4500 K (as compared to the photosphere
at 6000K). Around it is the penumbra, which looks lighter
gray (if filtered).

Sunspots come in cycles, increasing sharply (in numbers)

and then decreasing sharply. The period of this solar cycle
is about 11 years. (See PPT on ‘The Sun’ for more details.)
This picture of the sun was taken with
heavily filtered visible light.
 Corona

The outermost layer of the sun is the corona. Only

visible during eclipses, it is a low density cloud of
plasma with higher transparency than the inner layers.

The corona is hotter than some of the inner layers. Its

average temperature is 1 million K (2 million degrees
F) but in some places it can reach 3 million K (5
million degrees F).

Temperatures steadily decrease as we move farther

away from the core, but after the photosphere they
begin to rise again. There are several theories that
explain this, but none have been proven.
This picture, showing more turbulence, was taken with x
rays. The heat and energy of the corona cause the
emission of x rays
 The SUN

Source of all
Energy

Produces Energy
from H2

20
 Solar Flares

In the corona, above sunspots and areas of complex

magnetic field patterns, are solar flares.

These sparks of energy sometimes reach the size of

the Earth and can last for up to several hours.

Their temperature has been recorded at 11 million K

(20 million degrees F).

The extreme heat produces x rays that create light

when they hit the gasses of the corona.
Small prominences extend from the
chromosphere up into the lower
 Prominences

Prominences are generally less violent than solar

flares.

They are "cool sheets” of gas that condense out of

the corona above the active regions.

Some are quiet and hang there for weeks, others

rain matter down on the photosphere, still others
literally explode into space, pushing the corona out
in front of them in a great burst that carries the gas
off the sun altogether."
A Solar Prominence (from
SOHO)
 Coronal Mass Ejections

Large flares are often associated with huge ejections of

mass from the Sun.

Solar plasma is heated to tens of millions of degrees, and

electrons, protons, and heavy nuclei are accelerated to
near the speed of light. The super-heated electrons from
CMEs move along the magnetic field lines faster than the
solar wind can flow.

Each CME releases up to 100 billion kg (220 billion lb) of

this material, and the speed of the ejection can reach 1000
km/second (2 million mph) in some flares.

Solar flares and CMEs are currently the biggest

"explosions" in our solar system, roughly approaching the
power in ONE BILLION hydrogen bombs! (See ‘The Sun’s
Magnetic Personality’)
CMEs with UV Filter over the Sun
 Solar Flare
 Solar Prominence
SUN reactions
Nuclear Fission and Fusion
 Nuclear Fission
◦ The process of splitting an atomic nucleus is
called nuclear fission.
◦ Our nuclear power plants generate power by
splitting large nuclei such as uranium or
plutonium into smaller ones.
 Nuclear Fusion
◦ The process of combining (or fusing) two small
atoms into a larger one
The Energy Source of the Sun
• Before Einstein’s special theory of relativity, the most plausible theory for the
generation of the energy in the Sun was gravitational contraction:

• Today, we understand that the energy source of the Sun is the nuclear fusion
process which combines hydrogen nuclei to form helium, and at the same time
releasing a very large amount of energy per reaction. The increase of
temperature at the center of the Sun due to gravitational contraction eventually
trigger nuclear fusion, which converts some of the mass into energy, according to
Einstein’s mass-energy equation, E = mc2.

This is a simplified picture that’s

not exactly correct.
Electric charge is not conserved!
Why Does Nuclear Fusion Occurs Only
at the Center of the Sun?
Temperature & Density
• Temperature is a measurement of the
average kinetic energy of the particles.
• A volume of gas at very high temperature
means that the particles of the gas move
at very high speed.
• The very high speed is needed to
overcome the repulsive electromagnetic
force between the protons to get them
very close to each other.
• High density is necessary so that the
probability of fusion is high.
• Once the protons are close to each other,
the strong nuclear force can bind them
together to make a new and heavier
element.
Proton-Proton Chain
• The predominant fusion process in the core of
the Sun is the proton-proton chain

• Proton-Proton chain fuses four protons into

one helium.
 Core Temperature and Pressure are key to
fusing Hydrogen into Helium

When temperatures exceed 10 Million Degrees Kelvin the

kinetic energy is large enough overcome the coulomb
barrier to start the proton-proton reaction.
p + p  d + b + + n + 0.42
MeV
When enough deuterium (d) is present, the proton-
deuteron (deuterium) reaction begins.

p + d  He 3 + g + 5.5 MeV

See the cartoon on the next

slide
 b + (Positron)
Two
Hydrogen +0.42 MeV
Nuclei
(Protons) Deuteron n
(Neutrino)
The p – p Reaction

One Gamma Ray

Deuteron
Plus One + 5.5 MeV
Hydroge
n Nuclei Helium 3
Nuclei

The p – d
Reaction
 This next leads to:
He 3 + He 3  He 4 + 2p + 12.8
MeV
The overall result of the above series of
reactions is
4p  He 4 + 2b + + 2g + 2n +
26.7 MeV
Where: p = proton, b + =
positron,
g = gamma, and n =
neutrino
See the cartoon on the next slide.
 Helium 3
Alpha
Nuclei Proton
Particle

12.8 MeV

Helium Proton
Helium 3
4 Nuclei
Nuclei

The He3 – He3 Reaction into

He4
The energy is in particle velocity.

Copy the URL into your browser:

http://www.astro.ubc.ca/~scharein/a311/Sim/fusion/Fus
ion.html
for an active p -- p fusion animation. Click on
 The Reaction Summary
The reaction process depicted above is the dominant
fusion mechanism in light stars, including our sun.
In the P-P chain, two pairs of protons fuse, forming
two deuterons.
Each deuteron fuses with an additional proton to form
helium-3.
The two helium-3 nuclei which then fuse to create
beryllium-6, which is unstable (5.9 x10 -21 seconds)
and disintegrates into two protons plus a helium-4
(alpha particle).
In addition, the process releases two neutrinos, two
positrons, and gamma rays. The positrons annihilate
quickly with electrons in the plasma, releasing
additional energy in the form of gamma rays.
The neutrinos interact so weakly that they fly right out
of the sun immediately.
"P-P": Solar Fusion Chain
Summary Diagram
How does the energy generated at the center get
to the surface and to us?
The energy generated by the nuclear fusion
process is released in the form of photons
(radiative energy). The photons interact with The ‘random walk’ of photon
the solar plasma (mostly with the electrons). to the surface.
Each time a photon encounters an electron,
it changes its direction. Thus, the photons go
through a zigzag path to the surface. It takes
about 1 million years for a photon to travel
from the center of the Sun to its surface.
• Because of all the interactions along the
way, the photons lost memory about the core
where they originate…
• At the upper portion of the solar interior,
convection is the more efficient energy
transport mechanism to get the energy to the
surface.
The Equilibrium Between
Gravity and Pressure
The temperature and density inside the Sun increase due to gravitational
contraction. Without a force to counter gravitation force, the Sun will continue
to contract. However, as the Sun contracts, the density and temperature of the
interior also increase. This increases the thermal pressure of the interior, pushing
outward against the gravitational force.
• Gravitational force pulls the gas inward
• Thermal pressure push the gas outward
• When inward gravitational force is equal
to the outward push of thermal pressure,
the size of the Sun remains constant

If the mass of the Sun is high enough, the

internal pressure and temperature can be high
enough for nuclear fusion to begin…
 What holds the Sun Steady:
 Hydrostatic Equilibrium
 Solar Interior

Tc = 1.6x107 K Pc = 2.34x1011 bars

Than q…….for
listening.