THE SUN, A DAYTIME STAR

Hello again dear readers, I’m glad to continue posting in this sidereal blog (if it could be called that way). This time I would like to talk about the main celestial body of our Solar System: 
The Sun.

This huge friend comprises 99.8 percent of the entire mass of the Solar System: the other 0.2 percent is everything else: planets, moons, asteroids, dust, etc. (Burnham 126) So we are just like a very little piece of rock together with Mars, Venus and Mercury when compared with the sun and the exterior planets 

Today, scientists recognize the sun as a medium-sized star of fascinating complexity, composed largely of hydrogen and helium, and powered by a thermonuclear furnace. (Frazier 59)


So now imagine the big-sized stars that are thousands of times the size of the sun. But, despite of its size, our sun is a very stable a powerful star. 

Its source of energy is a nonstop succession of nuclear reactions in its core, where hydrogen atoms fuse to form helium. (Burnham 126)
This can be possible because the massive outer layers of the sun press inward in the core with more than 200 billion times the atmospheric pressure on Earth, squeezing its hydrogen to a density more than 160 times greater than water, generating temperatures of 27 million degrees Fahrenheit; high enough to ignite and sustain the fusion of hydrogen into helium. (Frazier 78)


Just imagine such power that literary transform an element to another!


With the rapid advance of scientific knowledge, the sun becomes an ever more fascinating star… The ancients had good reason to worship the sun. Under its wondrous light, human beings bask in warmth and pale to insignificance. The planets, asteroids and comets dance in stately orbit, locked in the sun’s gravitational embrace. (Frazier 79).