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The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System.It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light and infrared radiation with 10% at ultraviolet energies.
The existence of nearly all life on Earth is fueled by light from the Sun. Most autotrophs, such as plants, use the energy of sunlight, combined with carbon dioxide and water, to produce simple sugars—a process known as photosynthesis. These sugars are then used as building-blocks and in other synthetic pathways that allow the organism to grow.
However, there are many extreme and chemically harsh ecosystems on Earth that do support forms of life and are often hypothesized to be the origin of life on Earth. Hydrothermal vents , [ 7 ] acidic hot springs, [ 8 ] and volcanic lakes [ 9 ] are examples of life forming under difficult circumstances, provide parallels to the extreme ...
A cloud of interplanetary dust is visible at night as a faint band called the zodiacal light. [130] Interplanetary space contains the magnetic field generated by the Sun. [124] There are magnetospheres generated by planets such as Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury and the Earth that have their own magnetic fields. These are shaped by the influence of ...
16) considerably beneath the surface of the Sun and they provided a glimpse on the surface below that does not emit much light. Prefacing with many words of caution, he further hypothesises that the Sun "is made up of two kinds of matter, very different in their qualities; that by far the greater part is solid and dark" (p.
The Sun' light influences all life and processes on Earth; it is an energy provider that allows and sustains life on Earth. However, the Sun also produces streams of high energy particles known as the solar wind, and radiation that can harm life or alter its evolution. Under the protective shield of Earth's magnetic field and its atmosphere ...
"This is the most extreme orbit I have ever seen," Davide Farnocchia, a scientist at NASA's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies said in a statement. A strange object from outside our solar system ...
Thus, the Sun occupies 0.00001% (1 part in 10 7) of the volume of a sphere with a radius the size of Earth's orbit, whereas Earth's volume is roughly 1 millionth (10 −6) that of the Sun. Jupiter, the largest planet, is 5.2 AU from the Sun and has a radius of 71,000 km (0.00047 AU; 44,000 mi), whereas the most distant planet, Neptune, is 30 AU ...