This photo features the Sun, sunspots, and Mercury.
The Sun
- The Sun is one of the most important parts of our Solar System and is around 4 billion years old.
- The Sun is MASSIVE being 330,000 times greater than that of Earth’s mass and 11,900 times greater than the surface area of Earth
- The Sun is extremely hot being 9,941 degrees F.
- Sunspots, which are shown as light grey spots located at the left from the middle of the sun, appear darker because they are cooler than the rest of the Sun. They are still extremely hot being over 6,500 degrees F!
- The Sun is currently categorized as a yellow dwarf star.
Mercury
- Mercury is the smallest planet in our solar system, but is the closest to the Sun
- On Mercury, the average temperature can range from -290 degrees to 800 degrees.
- In this photo, Mercury is the tiny black dot to the right from the middle of the sun. It truly shows how massive the Sun is compared to other planets.
- Visit my post about Mercury under the planets category for more information about this tiny planet
Post Fun Fact
- Did you know that the Sun’s actual color is white? For humans on Earth it seems yellow/orange because our atmosphere distorts the white color emitted by the Sun. The white light made by the sun is actually a mix of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Because our atmosphere blocks blue, purple, and violet light coming from the sun, it appears orange and yellow to us.