Scientists are studying the sun, and many people are interested in how they deal with this task. In addition, the observation of the daylight is complicated by the fact that you can not look at it for a long time, this is fraught with a burn of the retina. Even if a person is going to observe the Sun without optics, with his own eyes, he needs to provide blackout, and ordinary dark glasses for this will not be enough.
How do scientists manage to observe such a complex object? All curious people ask similar questions, and they should be answered.
Sun Observation History
People have been watching the Sun for a long time - and even moreover, they worshiped it. In all ancient religions there is a god - the Sun, as a rule, he is - God - the father of the whole world. Even thousands of years ago, humanity understood the importance of the sun, the light, and the heat that it gives. In many ancient religions, it was believed that the daylight rises in the morning to the sky in a chariot carried by horses under the direction of a solar deity. Sol, Surya, Helios - all these are the names of the gods of light who were worshiped by ancient people.
The importance of the sun god in some pantheons was so high that he was regularly offered human sacrifices - so did the ancient Indians. The eclipse of the luminary was universally considered a bad omen, people were afraid of this phenomenon, despite the fact that already in antiquity the priests noted the cyclical nature of this phenomenon.
Then it was not possible to view the solar disk in the way modern scientists can do, and the star closest to our planet was a big mystery to people.
Modern studies of the sun
Today, the possibilities for exploring the Sun have become much broader. Spacecraft are launched into space, which take pictures, register x-rays that come from the stars, can record pulsations and other processes occurring on the surface. Of course, they cannot get close to each other or sit on the surface of a red-hot star, but they successfully collect a huge amount of information remotely. Observe the Sun and from the surface of the Earth. To do this, there are special telescopes with blackout and other specialized equipment that allows people to not risk their eyes.
Interesting fact: at the poles, particularly in Antarctica, there are research stations where scientists are closely studying the Sun. The circumpolar arrangement of such objects is logical, because in the summer the sun does not set at the poles, and it can be observed round the clock, without coming off.
History of Sun Research in the 20th Century
The space age began in the 20th century, the first satellites were sent to the Sun in 1959-1968. These were the Pioneers belonging to the USSR, they received the first accurate information about solar winds, the luminous magnetic field. The satellites of the Helios series, which stopped in the orbit of the planet Mercury closest to the Sun, started in the 1970s, they were able to give new information about the corona of the Sun and the winds.
Further, in 1973, the Skylab project was launched at the Apollo Observatory. In 1991, Japan joined the research with the Yohkoh project, this satellite studied solar flares until 2001. The SOHO lab, positioned at the Lagrange position, ran from 1995 to 2010, until it was replaced by SDO. And in 2006, STEREO was sent into space - also for observing the Sun. At the moment, research is ongoing, for this purpose it is planned to send new missions.
What do we know about the sun today?
It was once believed that the process of burning takes place on the Sun, according to the same principle as in any furnace or fire on Earth. It was this factor that was attributed to the star’s ability to give heat. In the era of the first discoveries in the field of radiation, scientists began to indicate that the Sun is a large nuclear station of natural origin. There is still no exact answer to the question regarding the processes occurring in the stars and the mechanisms of their heating; scientists have not yet been able to fully investigate such processes. However, several hypotheses still exist.
At the moment, the scientific world has mainly the facts that were clarified by observing the Sun through the use of modern equipment. So, the radius of our luminary is 695,990 km, which is as many as 109 radii of the Earth. The approximate mass is 333 terrestrial, and age is equal to 4.57 billion years. The approximate core temperature is 15,600,000 ° K, and the surface layer is 5770 ° K at the photosphere level. The layers of the Sun have an uneven temperature, the indicators alternate, scientists to this day can not explain this fact.
One revolution around the axis is made by the star in 27 Earth days, while the movement at the equator is faster, but at the poles it is slowed down. Solar activity is cyclical, periodically spots appear on the surface - places of low temperature. There are also flashes in the sun.
Thus, the Sun is an object that is difficult to study, but modern technologies allow scientists to achieve certain results. New data on the earth's luminary come regularly, they are carefully studied, hypotheses are built on their basis. I would like to believe that in the near future, scientists will find answers to all questions related to the Sun.
