Daystar: A Peep Into The Workings Of The Sun

Foreword vii
Preface ix
1. Introduction 1
2. Vital Statistics 5
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.2 MeasuringtheAstronomicalUnit . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3 WeighingtheSun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.4 TheTemperatureof theSun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.5 The Density of the Solar Material . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.6 TheCompositionof theSun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.7 TheSolarEnergyOutput . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3. The Anatomy of the Sun 17
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.2 TheStatesofMatter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.3 KeepingtheSunTogether . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.4 Energy Production in the Solar Interior . . . . . . . . 24
3.5 EnergyTransport intheSun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
xi
xii Daystar —A Peep into the Workings of the Sun
4. Blemishes on the Sun 35
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.2 Sunspots and Their 11-Year Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.3 The Creation of Solar Magnetic Fields . . . . . . . . . 41
4.4 TheSolarChromosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.5 The Active Regions Related to Sunspots . . . . . . . 50
4.6 TheSolarCorona . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4.7 TheSolarWind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
4.8 TheSolarOscillations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
5. The Sphere of Influence 59
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.2 SolarFlares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
5.2.1 The effect of solar x-ray and extreme
ultravioletflux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.2.2 Solar radioflux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
5.2.3 Solar energetic particle events . . . . . . . . . 64
5.3 CoronalMassEjections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
5.4 High-SpeedStreams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
5.5 Variability of Solar Luminosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
5.6 Solar Activity and Climate Change . . . . . . . . . . 72
6. Tools of The Trade 75
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
6.2 SolarOpticalTelescopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
6.3 RadioTelescopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
6.4 X-RayTelescopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
6.5 NeutrinoDetectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Suggested Reading 95
Index 97