Introduction to Astronomy Report

At the core of the sun, helium is created by the fusion of hydrogen atoms compressed together with a process called nuclear fusion. These cause a lot of energy to be produced which radiates across the sun layers and beyond. There exists a temperature of 15000000 0 C Energy from the core is passed to the radiative zone where it stays for around one million years then moves across the tachocline boundary to the convective area where the temperature decrease to below 2000000 0 C. here a soup of ionized atoms is formed from the hot plasma and moved to the photosphere. Since the sun is made of gases, this is the thickest part which our naked eyes can see. The temperature here is about 5500 0 C, and the sunspots are colder and darker, but the center of big sunspots is cooler around 4000 0 C.

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The chromosphere follows which is cooler and the temperature here is 4320 0 C. this is the sphere of color however it is not visible due to its weak light compared to the photosphere. And can only be seen as a red rim during full solar eclipses after the moon covers the photosphere. This is because of it's of the presence of hydrogen in plenty. In the corona temperature rises its temperature ranges rapidly from 1 million to 10 million degrees C. Despite the corona being the outermost layer, it is the hottest. Its volume is larger than the amount enclosed in the photosphere. In the heliosphere there exist solar wind which travels outward through the heliosphere forming a spiral shape from the magnetic fields.

Differential rotation is the movement non-solid of objects with different rates of rotation at a different latitude. The regions closer to the center of the objects rotates faster than the areas at the poles of the object. Just like the earth the sun also has the north and the south pole. Differential rotation of the sun is where the objects located far away from the sun experience little gravitational pull as compared to those near the sun. Due to this effect, the objects end up rotating at a slower rate to maintain the radius of their orbits; a rotation referred to as Keplerian rotation where the materials inside overtake the elements on the outside.

Sunspots are areas that appear to be darker on the sun's photosphere. The spots are formed because they are regions of cooler temperature than the areas surrounding them. They are caused by the solar magnetic field building in the photosphere. The magnetic fields change across the photosphere. It also differs in the time and where it is located. The most known location is called the quasiperiodic 11-year solar cycle. Here the number and the sizes of the sunspot changes a lot where the largest can be f 10000 kilometers. They are forms over a period which can extend to some months before they diminish.

A meteoroid is a little piece of a rocky body or a metallic body that exist in the space. They are made up of iron and extra-terrestrial nickel. They are usually smaller than the asteroids, and their size ranges from that of grain to that of a big object with the diameter of approximately one meter. Most of them emanate from the fragments of asteroids, comets or even from the collision of the debris from the moon or even the planet Mars. A meteorite or an asteroid or even a moving gat a high speed of around 20km/s may enter the atmosphere of the earth. As it moves it experiences aerodynamic heating making it produce a line of light from the object and from the path of glowing particles that are left behind a wake. The phenomenon of the light moving leaving a trail is called a meteor or a shooting star.

Meteors appear for a minimal time such as few seconds the objects that withstand the ablation as it breaks through the atmosphere as a meteor and reach the earth surface are called meteorites. A comet is a small icy body that exists in the solar system gains heat as it passes near the sun releasing gases a process known as outgassing. This makes it visible to the atmosphere and which sometimes may have a tail. This is because of the solar wind and radiation acting on the nucleus of the comet.

A dwarf planet is a mass object which is planetary and which is neither a plant nor a satellite. It is usually in orbit and possesses adequate strength which enables its gravity to compress it into a spheroid. However, the neighboring materials are not cleared. It was espoused in 2006 as part of categorization of three-way for bodies that were revolving around the sun. This helped a lot in more discoveries of organizations which were farther than Neptune, and their size seemed to be equal to that of Pluto. These bodies are supposed to rotate to obtain an oblate or scalene shape, and their gravitational pull must be greater internally. Though the IAU does not yet determine the masses and the size limits of the upper and the lower side, the shape of the dwarf planets is determined by the thermal history and its composition. Currently, there are five dwarf planets which include Pluto, Eris, Makemake, Ceres, and Haumea. Pluto and Ceres apply to this category entirely unlike the others. According to research there maybe 40 other objects which can fit the classification of dwarf planets and they are already known. If Kuiper belt is explored, there may be other 200 dwarf planets according to research. There is a controversy that surrounded the decision that was made by the IAU. However, according to the guidelines established in 2006 more dwarf planets continue to be developed.

References

Rees, M. J. (1988). Tidal disruption of stars by black holes of 106-108 solar masses in nearby galaxies. Nature, 333(6173), 523.