Have you ever wondered how hot the sun is?After all, with its enormous size, it provides heat to the entire solar system. It has a radius of 696,342 kilometers and can hold more than 1.3 million Earths. Moreover, its core is capable of thermonuclear reactions, producing amazing heat.
The temperature of the sun
The Sun is about 15 million degrees Celsius at its core and 5,500°C on its surface. The temperature of the outer atmosphere surrounding the sun is about two million degrees Celsius, and in some areas it even reaches 20 million degrees Celsius.
The Sun's core is hot enough for a thermonuclear reaction to occur, but scientists aren't too sure why the Sun's atmosphere is also so hot. Some have proposed that energy travels through the Sun's magnetic field to its atmosphere, where it is then "**."
Why is the sun so hot?
The reason why the sun is so hot is because the enormous pressure in its core triggers continuous nuclear fusion. The heat, light, and energy generated in its core through these thermonuclear reactions radiate to the surface of the sun, the atmosphere, and into space.
Essentially, the Sun is a giant ball of gas and plasma, and 92% of the star's gas is made up of hydrogen. The enormous gravitational pull and pressure at its core causes these hydrogen atoms to collide and produce helium. This is called nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion produces a lot of heat and energy that provides heat to our solar system.
Are there any hotter stars than the Sun?
The hottest known star is WR 102 in the constellation Sagittarius, with a surface temperature of more than 200,000 degrees Celsius. That's more than 36 times hotter than our sun.
Not only is WR 102 hotter than the Sun, but there are many other stars that boast higher temperatures. Stars like WR 102, white dwarfs, and neutron stars are all likely to be even hotter.
How do scientists know the temperature of the sun?
The temperature of the sun is measured according to theories supported by solar missions, including the Parker Solar Probe. Scientists can measure the sun's heat through remote telescopes that use spectral data.
The data collected by measuring the Sun's photosphere, chromosphere, transition zone, and corona can give scientists an understanding of the Sun's core and the amount of heat that goes outward to its surface, just as we know the thermonuclear fusion process at the Sun's center. Essentially, the core temperature of the sun is mathematically calculated and supported by real-world data.
This real-world data is collected by studying the wavelengths of the sun. The color of the light emitted by a star is used to obtain its temperature, which is where spectrometers come in – they "break down light into different components (or wavelengths) for study by means of dispersive optics."