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Solar Energy UK . Solar Flares . Our Sun . The Sun . Photoshere . Learn about our Sun . Learn about Solar Radiation . UK . Solar UK
The Sun provides solar energy, which can and does provide useable energy for our UK homes. See the UK solar radiation map. (below)
The UK receives 60% of the solar energy compared with the equator. This is equivalent to 1000 power stations. Each square metre of the UK receives between 900 – 1200kwh of heat each year.
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Just your average middle-aged star, but our sun...
Did you Know: The Sun, or 'our Sun' is also known as a Photoshere, "Photo" meaning Light, like in "solar energy". The Sun a giant gas ball of Hydrogen and helium, mixing together creating nuclear fusion that has been burning for 4.6 billion years. This has been illuminating our earth with solar energy (solar wind), which was manipulted by life to ultimately evolve.
The sun is a common fixed star, At night we see with the naked eye billions of them. As the centre of our solar system, the sun, has influenced in many ways life on earth. Mankind will have to harness this energy for for its long term energy needs and longer term survival.
The Sun is a gas ball with an enormous diameter of 1,392,000,000 Km, a conservative measurement. Nucleur fusion takes place inside. This is a process of hydrogen into helium, and a consequence of this process is "Photo" light ejected into space. Within this light are x-rays, ultraviolet radiation and radiowaves, put together to produce warmth, which all life is dependant.
The sun's solar energy as a supply for future energy source, is becoming a more and more urgent task to transform into a major human resource. The technology is already in place, but a change in governmental and social attitudes towards this solar technolgy is starting to change.
The spacecraft Ulysses, which flew over the south pole of the Sun in 1995 supplied the latest information on the sun. Measurements done when flying over the solar pole, showed stronger solar radiation at the poles than the suns equator. The solar wind is a constant flow of photo radiation which allows the earth to flourish. Variations in the solar wind are caused by "solar weather", which we have managed to see using specialist equipment. See Right
The suns magnetic field contains most of the suns matter, like earths atmosphere, but alot of fine particles are ejected from the sun, the solar wind, or solar energy can be captured on a Solar Panel to use. A chemical reaction occurs within the Solar Cells of the Panel, and this causes an electric current to be produced.
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Hot Water Solar Panels are another way of gathering solar radiation to heat water, for business and domestic use's. An effective way of putting the suns enrgy to use...Thermal solar panel or hot water heating solar panels >
The solar weather takes place within the solar magnetic field, spot formations , hot corna's solar flares are causes of the solar wind. The supply of Nucleur Fusion within our star (the sun) will last for 10 billion years (give or take a billion). During the Suns Hydrogen fusion cycle, neutrons particles are created in the centre of the gas ball. They are ejjected without resistance into the suns atmosphere and continue into deep space, or hit objects like the Earth and Moon etc.
Solar particles reach the Earth within 8 minutes of leaving the suns surface. A reliable and constant source of energy rains down on the Earth every day.
Sun Spots through a Telescope
What is there to see on the Sun? "Sunspots" With the naked eye, protected by filtering glass, we see a round disk, which is less bright at the edges, than the middle. The temperature layers of the Photosphere decrease in the suns atmosphere. The temperature in the sun's centre could reach 1-2 million degees C, but this is only a guess, as the real temperature cannot be measured accurately due to the high numbers involved. The suns corona or atmosphere temperature is approx 6000 degrees Kelvin.
Sun spots are dark spots seen on the sun's surface with diameters of upto 50,000 Km and can be found clustered together. The reason sun spots are dark is because they are lower in temperature than the rest of the Photoshere (the sun). Solar activity undulates on an 11 year cycle. At the "solar maximum" there are more solar flares, more sunspots, more sun quakes, more of everything that solar physicists love to study. But the solar cycle is not just for academics -- it affects everyday life on Earth, sometimes in unexpected ways. Northern lights have inspired art and poetry. A new science was born earlier this century thanks to the solar minimum. There's no evidence, but some people claim that even the length of mini-skirts and the performance of stocks are affected by sunspots.
:: Quick Facts ::
The Diameter = 1,390,000 Km
Mass = 1.989e30 Kg
Temperature = 5800 k (Surface)
Temperature = 15, 600, 000 (Core)
The solar radiation map for the UK and Europe.
As you can see, the UK gets high levels of solar radiation,
which can be used for domestic energy
Solar energy radiating as the
Solar Wind
The solar wind ejected from the sun, 55%
of solar particles penetrate the earths atmosphere
The Suns Structure and Core
The solar interior is separated into four regions by the different processes that occur there. Energy is generated in the core, the innermost 25%. This energy diffuses outward by radiation (mostly gamma-rays and x-rays) through the radiative zone and by convective fluid flows (boiling motion) through the convection zone, the outermost 30%. The thin interface layer (the "tachocline") between the radiative zone and the convection zone is where the Sun's magnetic field is thought to be generated.
The individual hydrogen nuclei must collide with enough energy to give a reasonable probability of overcoming the repulsive electrical force between these two positively charged particles. The temperature at the very center of the Sun is about 15,000,000° C (27,000,000 ° F) and the density is about 150 g/cm³ (about 10 times the density of gold or lead). Both the temperature and the density decrease as one moves outward from the center of the Sun. The nuclear burning is almost completely shut off beyond the outer edge of the core (about 25% of the distance to the surface or 175,000 km from the center).
The Interior - The Suns Inward regions
The Photosphere - The visible surface of the sun
The Chromosphere - The solar atmosphere
The Transition Region - The point at whgich solar particles leave the sun
The Corona - The aurora of the sun's surface
The Solar Wind - The ejected solar particles
The Heliosphere - The full reach of the solar windIn this process of fusing hydrogen to form helium, the nuclear reactions produce elementary particles called neutrinos. These elusive particles pass right through the overlying layers of the Sun and, with some effort, can be detected here on Earth. The number of neutrinos we detect is but a fraction of the number we expect. This problem of the missing neutrinos was one of the great mysteries of solar astronomy but now appears to be solved by the discovery of neutrino masses.
Solar Panels use this radiating solar energy, or "Photo" to produce electricity and heat up water to typical temperatures of 85 degrees C. A new analysis on Ice cores and solar particle studies shows that, the Sun is more active now than it has been at anytime in the previous 1,000 years.
They say that over the last century the number of sunspots rose at the same time that the Earth's climate became steadily warmer. In an attempt to determine what happened to sunspots during these other cold periods, Dr Sami Solanki and colleagues have looked at concentrations of a form, or isotope, of beryllium in ice cores from Greenland. And since the strength of the solar wind varies over the sunspot cycle, the amount of beryllium in the ice at a time in the past can therefore be used to infer the state of the Sun and, roughly, the number of sunspots.
Over the past 20 years, however, the number of sunspots has remained roughly constant, yet the average temperature of the Earth has continued to increase. This is put down to a human-produced greenhouse effect caused by the combustion of fossil fuels.
...Learn about Global Warming or Climate Change Effects >>Quick Facts about the Sun and Solar Energy
1.The sun is a flaming medium-sized yellow star and is classified as a yellow dwarf.2. The sun is 93,000,000 miles away from the earth.3. The sun has an expected life span of at least 5 billion years.4. Sunlight travels at 186,282 miles per second.5. The sun produces various wavelengths of light that make up the rainbow.6. Sunlight takes about 8 minutes to reach our planet.7. Every 15 minutes the sun produces enough power to supply the earth for an entire year.8. Every hour the sunlight that reaches the earth is greater than the amount used by every person on the planet in an entire year.9. The sun is mostly made up of hydrogen and helium gases.
10. Four hydrogen atoms fuse to make one helium atom. The loss of atomic matter (photons) is flung into space and hits the earth providing light and heat.11. Many civilizations, present and past, worship(ed) the sun (Aztecs, Mayans, Native Americans, etc).12. Energy from the sun is called solar energy.13. Solar energy is responsible for weather systems and ocean currents.14. Solar energy provides light, heat, and energy to all living things on Earth.
Radiation (radiant energy) is another name for sunlight.15. PV cells (photovoltaic or solar cells) change radiant energy to electrical energy.16. Solar energy technology and design can be active or passive.17. The sun is the most inexhaustible, renewable source of energy known to man.How quick does te Sun rotate?
The Sun rotates on its axis once in about 27 days. This rotation was first detected by observing the motion of sunspots in the photosphere. The Sun's rotation axis is tilted by about 7.25 degrees from the axis of the Earth's orbit so we see more of the Sun's north pole in September of each year and more of its south pole in March. Since the Sun is a ball of gas it does not have to rotate rigidly like the solid planets and moons do. In fact, the Sun's equatorial regions rotate faster (taking about 24 days) than the polar regions (which rotate once in more than 30 days).
Does the Sun make a noise as it burns?
The sun doesn't make noises in the same way that fire roars and crackles. Strictly speaking, it doesnt 'burn' either: the heat and the light it gives out comes from nuclear fusion reactions millions and millions of times more potenrt than the chemical processes of combustion.Even so. the turbulance produced by these fusion reactions doesproduce sounds, in the sense of rhythmic changes in the dense of the material making up the sun.
Known as acoustic waves, they typically have a frequency of around 0.005 of a hertz, so that they take over 3 minutes to complete on cycle. As such even if we could somehow arrange to listen in directly, the roar of the sun's nuclear furnace is far too low frequency for human hearing. The lowest frequesncy we can hear is 20hz.
Tell me about Binary Star Systems
Between a quarter and a half of stars exist in binary pairs. Only one planet (labelled HD 188753 AB) has yet been found in such a binary start system, but its possible to calculate theretical planetry orbits. For widely seperated stars orbits are not effected. When the sta'rs become closer, orbits are distorted and planets can be effected into space.
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