Today we continue the scientific rubric and want to debunk some common myths about the Sun. Scientists, experts in the study of the Sun, talk about the Sun.
Audio release of the broadcast
http://sun-helps.myjino.ru/sop/20190902_sop.mp3Myth #1: There is no water on the Sun.
It is not true. Sergey Bogachev, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Chief Researcher of the Laboratory of Solar X-Ray Astronomy of the Lebedev Physical Institute, tells.
The phrase that there is water on the Sun sounds very strange, nevertheless, there is water on the Sun, and quite a lot of it. Where does it come from and in what form does it exist? Water has a very simple formula: it only needs hydrogen and oxygen to form. Both of these are in abundance on the Sun. However, this is by no means sufficient for water to form without fail. For example, the Sun has all the components to make a DNA molecule, but this does not mean that such a molecule can exist there, since, of course, it will be immediately destroyed by temperature. In other words, not all molecules can exist on the Sun, but only the most stable, the most unpretentious ones. Such a molecule is, in particular, carbon monoxide (CO), which is extremely stable due to the triple valence bond. Another molecule is nitrogen (N2). And also, oddly enough, the water molecule, which is one of the most durable in nature! So there is water on the Sun, and although in percentage terms water molecules make up an insignificant fraction of the mass of the Sun, in absolute terms the reserves of fresh water on the Sun are greater than anywhere else in our solar system.
Since water molecules are sensitive to temperature, they are predominantly formed in areas of low temperature. On the Sun, such areas are sunspots, which have a temperature of only about 4.5 thousand degrees. It is in the spots, as well as in a very narrow layer under the surface of the Sun, called the region of the temperature minimum, that the main reserves of water on the Sun are concentrated. So when people in the Middle Ages believed that sunspots were lakes of water on the sun's surface, they weren't too far off the mark.
Myth #2: The sun stays in the same place all the time.
It is not true. Vladimir Kuznetsov, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Director of the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation of the Russian Academy of Sciences, full member of the International Academy of Astronautics.
The sun is a typical star, of which there are a lot in the universe. It is part of the Milky Way galaxy. Our Galaxy has a spiral structure, and the stars are concentrated in its arms and between them. All of them, like the Sun, revolve around the center of the Galaxy. For the Sun, the movement around the center of the Galaxy occurs at a speed of 217 kilometers per second. The speed is high, but since the scales are huge, the Sun makes its revolution in about 250 million years (galactic year). Thus, the Sun continuously moves in outer space around the center of the Galaxy.
The Sun is the center of the Solar System, which includes the Sun itself as the central body and the planets, which have a very small mass and therefore revolve around the Sun, having little effect on the movement of the Sun itself. The mass of the Sun is much greater than the masses of all the planets, so the center of mass of the solar system is inside the Sun itself. As the planets move at different speeds and change their position relative to the Sun, the center of mass moves within the Sun, and the Sun revolves around this moving center of mass. Thus, the movement of the Sun occurs around the center of the Galaxy and the center of mass of the solar system.
MYTH THREE: The sun is made of fiery lava
It is not true. Vladimir Kuznetsov, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Director of the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation of the Russian Academy of Sciences, full member of the International Academy of Astronautics
The sun, like a typical star, was formed during the compression of a proto-cloud. It is believed that the Sun is a third generation star. When the explosion occurred and the Universe was formed, elementary particles and hydrogen arose, the gas began to gravitationally contract, forming clusters of galaxies, galaxies, clusters of stars and the stars themselves. Then these stars exploded, and their matter was ejected into interstellar space. The sun was formed from interstellar matter that was twice in other stars, which contracted and exploded. In addition to hydrogen, it contains heavy elements that are formed at high pressure, that is, when a star contracts.
The substance of which the Sun is composed corresponds to the cosmic abundance of elements, among which hydrogen predominates. Also, small impurities of various heavy elements were formed in it, and if we look at the Sun, we see the emission lines of these elements, that is, this is a plasma heated to a high temperature. It cannot turn into a substance that we see on Earth, into a solid body, and so on, because it is heated to a high temperature, and the source of this energy is thermonuclear reactions that occur in the depths of the Sun. This is the thermonuclear energy that we want to get on Earth. The conditions for the occurrence of nuclear reactions arise due to high pressure and high temperature in the center of the Sun, in the form of radiation, the released nuclear energy spreads outward, and ionizes everything - both the insides of the Sun and the solar corona. Further, the solar plasma passes into the solar wind, and we register its particles. This is what flows from the Sun itself, this is not heavy fiery lava, but the plasma of which it is composed.
The presence of water on the Sun has long been hypothesized, but proving it has been a real test for scientists.
The surface of the Sun has a temperature of about 6,000 kelvins. It is so hot there that hydrogen atoms are ionized, and molecular bonds are simply broken. This is a rather inhospitable atmosphere for molecules such as H 2 O.
Despite this, the potential for the formation of water molecules in the sun still exists. Scientists have observed large amounts of oxygen in the spectra of the Sun. Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, and most of the Sun's mass is hydrogen. All it takes to form a water molecule is a temperature that is cool enough for hydrogen and oxygen to “assemble” so that they can come together to form water.
It turns out that there is such a place in sunspots. We usually think of sunspots as dark areas on the Sun - but they are not really dark, they are dimmer than the rest of the sun, so they appear dark in pictures.
Inside a large sunspot, the temperature drops to 3500 K, which is cool enough for water molecules to form. Naturally, it exists there only in the form of water vapor, but it can be confidently asserted that there really is water on the surface of the Sun!
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PostNauka debunks scientific myths and introduces readers to comments from our experts that explain common misconceptions. We asked our authors to tell us about the reasons for the formation of certain well-established ideas about the Sun.
There is no water on the sun
It is not true. The phrase that there is water on the Sun sounds very strange, nevertheless, there is water on the Sun, and quite a lot of it. Where does it come from and in what form does it exist? Water has a very simple formula: it only needs hydrogen and oxygen to form. Both of these are in abundance on the Sun. However, this is by no means sufficient for water to form without fail. For example, the Sun has all the components to make a DNA molecule, but this does not mean that this molecule can exist there, since, of course, it will be immediately destroyed by temperature. In other words, not all molecules can exist on the Sun, but only the most stable, the most unpretentious ones. Such a molecule is, in particular, carbon monoxide (CO), which is extremely stable due to the so-called triple valence bond. Another molecule is nitrogen (N2). And oddly enough, this is also a water molecule, which, thanks to a happy coincidence, is one of the most durable in nature. So there is water on the Sun, and although in percentage terms water molecules make up an insignificant fraction of the mass of the Sun, in absolute terms the reserves of fresh water on the Sun are greater than anywhere else in our solar system.
It can be noted that, since molecules, including water molecules, are sensitive to temperature, they are predominantly formed in regions of low temperature. On the Sun, such areas are sunspots, which have a temperature of only about 4.5 thousand degrees (they are surrounded by areas with a temperature of 6 thousand degrees). It is in the spots, as well as in a very narrow layer under the surface of the Sun, called the region of the temperature minimum, that the main reserves of water on the Sun are concentrated. So in a sense, when people in the Middle Ages believed that sunspots were lakes of water on the surface of the sun, they were in a sense not very far from the truth.
Sergey Bogachev
The sun stays in the same place all the time
It is not true. The sun is a typical star, of which there are a lot in the universe. It is located in space, where most of the gas and the stars that formed from this gas are concentrated. Our Galaxy has a spiral structure, and the stars are concentrated in its arms, between them, and so on. All of them, like the Sun, revolve around the center of the Galaxy. For the Sun, the movement around the center of the Galaxy occurs at a speed of 217 kilometers per second. The speed is high, but since the scales are huge, the Sun makes its revolution in about 250 million years (galactic year). Thus, the Sun continuously moves in outer space around the center of the Galaxy.
The Sun is the center of the Solar System, which includes the Sun itself as the central body and the planets, which have a very small mass and therefore revolve around the Sun, having little effect on the movement of the Sun itself. The mass of the Sun is much greater than the masses of all the planets, so the center of mass of the solar system is inside the Sun itself. Since the planets move at different speeds and change their position relative to the Sun, the center of mass moves inside the Sun, and the Sun rotates around this center of mass moving inside it. Thus, the movement of the Sun occurs around the center of the Galaxy and the center of mass of the solar system.
Vladimir Kuznetsov
The sun is closer to the earth in summer than in winter
It is not true. Let's start with the fact that the distance between the Sun and the Earth is really not constant, but changes throughout the year. This is due to the fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun not in a circle, but "almost in a circle." The figure that represents the orbit of the Earth, like the orbits of all other planets in our solar system, is called an ellipse. In general, the orbits of the planets can be arbitrarily elongated. Such an orbit, in particular, has Pluto, which during the Plutonian summer approaches the Sun at a distance of “only” 4.5 billion kilometers, and “in winter” moves away from the Sun by 7.5 billion. By the way, a year on Pluto lasts 250 years. If the Earth's orbit were similar to the orbit of Pluto, then the apparent size of the Sun in the sky during the year would change twice, and the fluxes of heat and light falling on the Earth in winter and summer would differ by 4 times. The average temperature on Earth in winter would be about minus 50 ° C at the equator, and at the poles - around minus 150 ° C, and, most likely, there would simply be no one to read these lines. Fortunately, the Earth's orbit is almost a circle. The average distance from the Sun to the Earth is almost 150 million kilometers (light travels this distance in just over 8 minutes). At the nearest point of the orbit, the Earth approaches the Sun by 2.5 million kilometers, and at the far point it moves away by the same distance. The corresponding change in distance is only 1.5%. The apparent size of the solar disk in the sky changes by the same fraction during the year. Of course, most people don't even notice it.
And yet, when is the Sun closest to the Earth - in summer or winter? The answer to this question is known: the Earth passes through the nearest point of its orbit every year at about the same time - almost immediately after the New Year holidays, around January 3–4. In other words, at this time in the sky you can see the Sun as large as possible. Is it getting any warmer today? Strictly speaking, yes, since proximity to the Sun increases the average temperature by 2-3 degrees, but, of course, the change of seasons with the Earth's orbit that we have has nothing to do with the distance to the Sun. Much more important in our earthly life is the height of the Sun above the horizon and, as a result, the density of the sun's rays falling on the Earth's surface. And it, especially at high latitudes, where most of our country is located, changes during the year not by 1-2%, but several times.
However, there is a much easier way to understand that the seasons have nothing to do with the distance to the Sun. Suffice it to recall that January is the central month of winter only in the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, summer is at its peak at the same time. Accordingly, for most residents of the same South America, the fact that the Sun is closest in January probably does not seem as surprising as it does for us.
Sergey Bogachev
Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Chief Researcher of the Laboratory of Solar X-Ray Astronomy of the Lebedev Physical Institute
The sun is made of fiery lava
It is not true. The sun, like a typical star, was formed during the compression of a proto-cloud. It is believed that the Sun is a third generation star. When the explosion occurred and the Universe was formed, elementary particles and hydrogen arose, the gas began to gravitationally contract, forming clusters of galaxies, galaxies, clusters of stars and the stars themselves. Then these stars exploded, and their matter was ejected into interstellar space. The sun was formed from interstellar matter, which was twice in the stars, which contracted and exploded. In addition to hydrogen, it contains heavy elements that are formed at high pressure, that is, when a star contracts.
The substance of which the Sun is composed corresponds to the cosmic abundance of elements, among which hydrogen predominates. Also, small impurities of various heavy elements were formed in it, and if we look at the Sun, we see the emission lines of these elements, that is, this is a plasma heated to a high temperature. It cannot turn into a substance that we see on Earth, into a solid body, and so on, because it is heated to a high temperature, and the source of this energy is thermonuclear reactions that occur in the depths of the Sun. This is the thermonuclear energy that we want to get on Earth. The conditions for the occurrence of nuclear reactions arise due to high pressure and high temperature in the center of the Sun, in the form of radiation, the released nuclear energy spreads outward, and ionizes everything - both the insides of the Sun and the solar corona. Further, the solar plasma passes into the solar wind, and we register its particles. This is what flows from the Sun itself, this is the plasma of which it is composed.
Vladimir Kuznetsov
Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Director of the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation of the Russian Academy of Sciences, full member of the International Academy of Astronautics
In the future, the Sun will increase and destroy all life on Earth
It's true. There are stars called "red giants". They have approximately the same mass as the Sun, but are about twice as old as it. And with the same mass, their size is tens of times larger than the size of our Sun. The theory of stellar evolution, which is now well developed, explains this in a rather natural way - as a result of evolutionary changes occurring in stars after thermonuclear fuel (hydrogen) gradually runs out in their depths, where the thermonuclear reaction of converting hydrogen into helium is now taking place. The same increase in size will certainly occur with the Sun. In the future, it should gradually inflate to such a size that, probably, the orbit of Venus will be inside our star. At the same time, the amount of energy that the Sun will radiate will many times exceed the current level.
Of course, at this time, not only life on Earth will be impossible, but in general, water will disappear from our planet, the atmosphere will evaporate, and a dry hot desert will remain. But this will be in the very distant future, at least 5 billion years from our time. This is a colossal period, it is almost a hundred times longer than the period of time that separates us from the era of dinosaurs, when people did not exist at all. Therefore, we do not need to worry about the fate of our distant descendants. If a highly developed society survives until that time, its possibilities will be unimaginably high for us, and people will surely come up with a way to find a more suitable place for themselves to live.
Anatoly Zasov
Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Astrophysics and Stellar Astronomy, Faculty of Physics, Moscow State University, Head of the Department of Extragalactic Astronomy, SAI MSU
Experts debunk the myths about the only star in our planetary system called the Sun.
We debunk scientific myths and introduce readers to expert comments that explain common misconceptions. The authors talk about the reasons why certain established ideas about the Sun were formed.
MYTH ONE: There is no water on the Sun
It is not true. The phrase that there is water on the Sun sounds very strange, nevertheless, there is water on the Sun, and quite a lot of it. Where does it come from and in what form does it exist? Water has a very simple formula: it only needs hydrogen and oxygen to form. Both of these are in abundance on the Sun. However, this is by no means sufficient for water to form without fail. For example, the Sun has all the components to make a DNA molecule, but this does not mean that this molecule can exist there, since, of course, it will be immediately destroyed by temperature. In other words, not all molecules can exist on the Sun, but only the most stable, the most unpretentious ones. Such a molecule is, in particular, carbon monoxide (CO), which is extremely stable due to the so-called triple valence bond. Another molecule is nitrogen (N2). And oddly enough, this is also a water molecule, which, thanks to a happy coincidence, is one of the most durable in nature. So there is water on the Sun, and although in percentage terms water molecules make up an insignificant fraction of the mass of the Sun, in absolute terms the reserves of fresh water on the Sun are greater than anywhere else in our solar system.
It can be noted that, since molecules, including water molecules, are sensitive to temperature, they are predominantly formed in regions of low temperature. On the Sun, such areas are sunspots, which have a temperature of only about 4.5 thousand degrees (they are surrounded by areas with a temperature of 6 thousand degrees). It is in the spots, as well as in a very narrow layer under the surface of the Sun, called the region of the temperature minimum, that the main reserves of water on the Sun are concentrated. So in a sense, when people in the Middle Ages believed that sunspots were lakes of water on the surface of the sun, they were in a sense not very far from the truth.
MYTH TWO: The sun is in the same place all the time
It is not true. The sun is a typical star, of which there are a lot in the universe. It is located in space, where most of the gas and the stars that formed from this gas are concentrated. Our Galaxy has a spiral structure, and the stars are concentrated in its arms, between them, and so on. All of them, like the Sun, revolve around the center of the Galaxy. For the Sun, the movement around the center of the Galaxy occurs at a speed of 217 kilometers per second. The speed is high, but because the scale is huge, the Sun makes its revolution in about 250 million years (galactic year). Thus, the Sun continuously moves in outer space around the center of the Galaxy.
The Sun is the center of the Solar System, which includes the Sun itself as the central body and the planets, which have a very small mass and therefore revolve around the Sun, having little effect on the movement of the Sun itself. The mass of the Sun is much greater than the masses of all the planets, so the center of mass of the solar system is inside the Sun itself. Since the planets move at different speeds and change their position relative to the Sun, the center of mass moves inside the Sun, and the Sun rotates around this center of mass moving inside it. Thus, the movement of the Sun occurs around the center of the Galaxy and the center of mass of the solar system.
MYTH 3: The Sun is closer to the Earth in summer than in winter
It is not true.
Let's start with the fact that the distance between the Sun and the Earth is really not constant, but changes throughout the year. This is due to the fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun not in a circle, but "almost in a circle." The figure that represents the orbit of the Earth, like the orbits of all other planets in our solar system, is called an ellipse. In general, the orbits of the planets can be arbitrarily elongated. Such an orbit, in particular, has Pluto, which during the Plutonian summer approaches the Sun at a distance of “only” 4.5 billion kilometers, and “in winter” moves away from the Sun by 7.5 billion. By the way, a year on Pluto lasts 250 years. If the Earth's orbit were similar to the orbit of Pluto, then the apparent size of the Sun in the sky during the year would change twice, and the fluxes of heat and light falling on the Earth in winter and summer would differ by 4 times. The average temperature on Earth in winter would be about minus 50 ° C at the equator, and at the poles - around minus 150 ° C, and, most likely, there would simply be no one to read these lines. Fortunately, the Earth's orbit is almost a circle. The average distance from the Sun to the Earth is almost 150 million kilometers (light travels this distance in just over 8 minutes). At the nearest point of the orbit, the Earth approaches the Sun by 2.5 million kilometers, and at the far point it moves away by the same distance. The corresponding change in distance is only 1.5%. The apparent size of the solar disk in the sky changes by the same fraction during the year. Of course, most people don't even notice it.
And yet, when is the Sun closest to the Earth - in summer or in winter? The answer to this question is known: the Earth passes through the nearest point of its orbit every year at about the same time - almost immediately after the New Year holidays, around January 3-4. In other words, at this time in the sky you can see the Sun as large as possible. Is it getting any warmer today? Strictly speaking, yes, since proximity to the Sun increases the average temperature by 2-3 degrees, but, of course, the change of seasons with the Earth's orbit that we have has nothing to do with the distance to the Sun. Much more important in our earthly life is the height of the Sun above the horizon and, as a result, the density of the sun's rays falling on the Earth's surface. And it, especially at high latitudes, where most of our country is located, changes during the year not by 1-2%, but several times.
However, there is a much easier way to understand that the seasons have nothing to do with the distance to the Sun. Suffice it to recall that January is the central month of winter only in the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, summer is at its peak at the same time. Accordingly, for most residents of the same South America, the fact that the Sun is closest in January probably does not seem as surprising as it does for us.
Sergey Bogachev - Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Chief Researcher of the Laboratory of X-ray Solar Astronomy of the Lebedev Physical Institute
MYTH FOUR: The sun is made of fiery lava
It is not true. The sun, like a typical star, was formed during the compression of a proto-cloud. It is believed that the Sun is a third generation star. When the explosion occurred and the Universe was formed, elementary particles and hydrogen arose, the gas began to gravitationally contract, forming clusters of galaxies, galaxies, clusters of stars and the stars themselves. Then these stars exploded, and their matter was ejected into interstellar space. The sun was formed from interstellar matter, which was twice in the stars, which contracted and exploded. In addition to hydrogen, it contains heavy elements that are formed at high pressure, that is, when a star contracts.
The substance of which the Sun is composed corresponds to the cosmic abundance of elements, among which hydrogen predominates. Also, small impurities of various heavy elements were formed in it, and if we look at the Sun, we see the emission lines of these elements, that is, this is a plasma heated to a high temperature. It cannot turn into a substance that we see on Earth, into a solid body, and so on, because it is heated to a high temperature, and the source of this energy is thermonuclear reactions that occur in the depths of the Sun. This is the thermonuclear energy that we want to get on Earth. The conditions for the occurrence of nuclear reactions arise due to high pressure and high temperature in the center of the Sun, in the form of radiation, the released nuclear energy spreads outward, and ionizes everything - both the insides of the Sun and the solar corona. Further, the solar plasma passes into the solar wind, and we register its particles. This is what flows from the Sun itself, this is the plasma of which it is composed.
Vladimir Kuznetsov - Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Director of the Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation of the Russian Academy of Sciences, full member of the International Academy of Astronautics
MYTH FIVE: In the future, the Sun will increase and destroy all life on Earth
It's true. There are stars called "red giants". They have approximately the same mass as the Sun, but are about twice as old as it. And with the same mass, their size is tens of times larger than the size of our Sun. The theory of stellar evolution, which is now well developed, explains this in a rather natural way - as a result of evolutionary changes that occur in stars after thermonuclear fuel (hydrogen) gradually runs out in their interiors, where the thermonuclear reaction of converting hydrogen into helium is now taking place. The same increase in size will certainly occur with the Sun. In the future, it should gradually inflate to such a size that, probably, the orbit of Venus will be inside our star. At the same time, the amount of energy that the Sun will radiate will many times exceed the current level.
Of course, at this time, not only life on Earth will be impossible, but in general, water will disappear from our planet, the atmosphere will evaporate, and a dry hot desert will remain. But this will be in the very distant future, at least 5 billion years from our time. This is a colossal period, it is almost a hundred times longer than the period of time that separates us from the era of dinosaurs, when people did not exist at all. Therefore, we do not need to worry about the fate of our distant descendants. If a highly developed society survives until that time, its possibilities will be unimaginably high for us, and people will surely come up with a way to find a more suitable place for themselves to live.
Anatoly Zasov - Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Astrophysics and Stellar Astronomy of the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University, Head of the Department of Extragalactic Astronomy of the SAI MSU
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