NATS 1560 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Solar Wind, Cno Cycle, Photosphere
8 Feb 2017
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Document Summary
Basic stats: our sun is a smaller cooler star. Holds together all the pieces of our solar system. Massive to any other solar system object: the sun is made up of several layers. Core, radiative zone and convective zone: it is in the core that the process of fusion takes place. Fusion powers the sun (smaller atoms smashed together to create bigger ones) The interior of our sun is in the range of 15 million k. the interior will also be subject to extreme pressure. Only under these conditions can fusion take place. Replicating fusion reaction cannot be created here on earth. Drives photosynthesis here on earth and also this makes the sun shine that bright: the solar wind is a stream of high energy ionized particles that are blown outward from the sun. This material interacts with the magnetic fields of the planets.
