Power Hour 84 The Sun Heats Up

For the rest of this year and next year, the sun will be extra active, scientists say. 

The sun is the hottest object in our solar system. Our sun has been making heat and light since it formed 4.5 billion years ago. It does that by changing hydrogen into another element, helium. Heat from the center of the sun slowly bubbles to the surface. The sun's surface looks like a rapidly boiling pot of water. The temperature at the surface is about 7,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Streams of gas, called flares, can explode from the sun's surface. Those streams of gas soar through space and sometimes collide with Earth's atmosphere.

Sunspots are storms on the sun. They look dark because they are cooler than the surrounding surface. Each sunspot, however, is very hot--about 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit. When gases from the sun reach Earth's atmosphere, they cause the atmosphere to glow. The glowing lights are called an aurora. Auroras are usually seen when the sun is active. '

Zat a Fact?

The sun is nearly 1,000,000 miles across. Jupiter is almost 89,000 miles across. Earth is almost 8,000 miles across.