What is the Sun? Video Lecture | Science Olympiad Class 6

[INTRO MUSIC ]
Pop quiz: what's the closest star to Earth? it is the sun also known as sol
Ancient Romans – who once
worshipped the Sun – called it Sol
and it's become the kind of
official scientific name for the Sun.
It's where the term 'solar system' comes from.
Sol, or the Sun, is the star at the center of our
eight-planet solar system that provides us with energy.
Without the Sun, Earth would be
a dark, frozen world with no life.
But how does the Sun's energy get to us?
Well, first, let's talk about what the Sun is.
It's a five billion-year-old big ball of super hot gas.
The hottest part of the Sun is its core,
or center, which is about 15,000,000°C!
Woah!
Its surface is not quite as hot,
but it's still almost 5,600°C,
which is pretty toasty if you ask me!
And as for its size?
The Sun is so huge you can line up
over a hundred Earths along the face of it,
and more than a million Earths could fit inside it.
But the Sun's size isn't what makes it
seem so big and bright to us on Earth –
it's because it's so close to us that it
seems way, way, way, WAY bigger
and brighter than other stars.
So, you know that the Sun is hot.
And bright.
And that heat and light are both kinds
of energy that we get from the Sun.
Let's take a look at a model to see how the
Sun's energy gets from good ol' Sol to our planet.
Here's the Sun.
Energy is created in its super hot 15,000,000°C core.
That energy then travels outward
from the core to the surface of the Sun,
but this journey from the center of the Sun to its
surface can take over 100,000 years to complete.
But, once the energy deep inside
the Sun finally gets to the surface,
it travels as light and heat all the way to Earth.
In fact, it only takes about eight minutes for
light to travel approximately 150 million km
through space to Earth over here.
That's not such a long time!
So to sum up, energy is created in the Sun's core.
It travels very slowly to the Sun's surface,
before it takes a superspeedy trip
to Earth in the form of light and heat.
And you and I can see and feel that energy as sunlight.
Without the heat and light we get from the Sun, Earth
would be just a frozen ball floating around in space,
which would be a total bummer!
So, thanks Sol, you're a real star!
[OUTRO MUSIC]