ASTRO-110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Solar Wind
9 Oct 2020
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Document Summary
Sun and planets are all quite small compared to the distances between them. The solar system is not a random collection of worlds. Planets orbit the sun in the same direction and nearly the same plane. The largest and the brightest object in our solar system. Surface has sunspots and are slightly cooler than their surroundings. Each second fusion transforms about 600 million tons of the suns hydrogen into 596 million tons of helium, the missing 4 million becomes energy (e = mc^2) Sun will continue to shine for another 5 billion years. Charged particles flowing outward from the sun make up the solar wind. Days and nights last for about 3 months each. Heavily cratered but shows evidence of past geological activity. Strange rotation: very slowly in the opposite direction of earths rotation. Sun rises in the west and sets in the east. Only known oasis of life in the solar system.
