The Sun

             What is the sun? How big is it? What is it made of? where does the sun get all the energy that it sends to Earth and allof the other planets in our solar system? We know the sun is a star, but what are stars?.
             Stars are huge balls of glowing gas. Our star the Sun, is a huge ball ,864,000 miles in diameter. It is so large that if it were empty you could put one million Earths in it. The Sun is also very heavy. If the Sun was on one side of a gigantic see saw you would need 333,000 Earths on the other sideto balance it. .
             There are two main gases that make up the Sun: Hydroen and .
             Helium. Hydrogen is one of the elements in water nd Helium is the gas sometimes put into ballons to make them float. About 90% of the aoms in the sun are hydrogen atoms. The remining 10% are helium atoms. Without the pull of the Suns strong gravity these gases would escpe into space. The Sun's gravity pulls them to the center close together, so close that they start becoming compressed and very hot. the Suns center gets up to 27 million degrees celsius. The pressure is so great the gas is squeezed to a density greater than that of iron.
             Scientists believe that the heat of the Suns outer corona ourouter atmosphere creates a very low density solar wind of electrically charged gases. these particals race outward through the solar system at speeds of 140 to 440 mph.
             Although the solar winds cannot be seentheir effects can be.The particles are electricly charged, so they can betrapped in Earths magnetic field. The presence of the particals will sometimes trigger the beutiful auroras or northern lights seen in the night sky.When frozencomets swing by the Sun , the gases they release are blown by the solar wind and form long tails pointing away from the Suns surface.
             Many questions that are brought up are: Where did the Sun come from? What will happen to it in the future? Astronomers have been trying to awnser these questions for years.