Sun

2012-07-14T21:58:26Z

Drviolin: /* Biblical */

{{Planet
|image=Moooghj.jpg
|caption=The Sun. In the upper-right area is an image of Earth to scale.
|primary=Galaxy
|periapsis=27,600 ly<ref name=Trapp>Trapp, Andrew. "[http://www.geocities.com/dreamer-71/timescales.html Timescales in Open, Flat, and Very Large Closed Universes]." ''From Now Until the End of Time...'' Accessed January 17, 2008.</ref>
|apoapsis=31,800 ly<ref name=apo>Author unknown. "[http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=apogalacticon Entry for 'Apogalacticon']." <http://everything2.com/> July 22, 2001. Accessed January 17, 2008.</ref>
|semimajor=29,700 ly<ref name=calc>Calculated</ref>
|eccentricity=0.07<ref name=apo/>
|sidereal=250,000,000 a
|orbitspeed=217 km/s
|inclination=25°
|reference=galactic plane
|siderealday = 25 da<ref name=Goddard>Williams, David R. "[http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/sunfact.html Sun Fact Sheet]." ''Goddard Space Flight Center ([[NASA]])'', September 1, 2004. Accessed January 17, 2008.</ref>
|solarday=27.2753 da<ref name=SunFact>Harvey, Samantha. "[http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Sun&Display=Facts&System=Metric Sun Facts and Figures]." ''[[NASA]]'', April 26, 2007. Accessed January 17, 2008.</ref><ref name=note1>This day is actually a synodic day and is the period for the same point on the Sun's equator to appear again directly facing the [[Earth]].</ref>
|mass=1.9891 * 1030 kg (332,848.616 * earth)<ref name=Goddard/><ref name=SunFact/>
|density=1408 kg/m³<ref name=Goddard/>
|surfacegrav=274.0 m/s² (27.94 ''g'')<ref name=Goddard/><ref name=SunFact/>
|escapespeed=618.02 km/s<ref name=Goddard/><ref name=SunFact/>
|meanradius=696,000 km<ref name=Goddard/>
|equatorradius=695,500 km<ref name=SunFact/>
|surfacearea=6,087,799,000,000 km² (11,935.176 * earth)<ref name=SunFact/>
|mintemp=4000 K<ref name=Goddard/><ref name=Britannica>"[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9110144/Sun Entry for 'Sun']." ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Accessed March 5, 2008.</ref>
|meantemp=5777 K<ref name=SunFact/>
|maxtemp=8000 K<ref name=Britannica/>
|composition=92.1% [[hydrogen]], 7.8% [[helium]]<ref name=SunFact/>
|color=Yellow-orange
|pmdm=3.5 * 1029<ref name=Humphreys>Humphreys, D. R. "[http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq/articles/21/21_3/21_3.html The Creation of Planetary Magnetic Fields]." ''Creation Research Society Quarterly'' 21(3), December 1984. Accessed April 29, 2008.</ref><ref name=est>Estimated</ref>
|cmdm=4.65 * 1029<ref name=Humphreys/>
|mdt=19000 a<ref name=Humphreys/>
|mhl=13170 a<ref name=calc/>
}}The '''Sun''', also known by the name '''Sol''' (either from the Greek, ''helios'' or from the [[Latin]] word ''sol'') is a [[Star|yellow dwarf star]] of spectral type G2V. The eight [[planet]]s, including Earth, orbit the Sun, as do countless other small objects.<ref name=Britannica/>

== Nomenclature ==
The Sun a classified as spectral class G2 V. The "G" means it is a moderately warm yellow star. The "2" means it is in the third hottest group of stars within type "G" (the scale runs from 0 to 9). The "V" is a Roman numeral for 5 and indicates the Sun's size. A size V star is a dwarf, main sequence star. The Sun is in the 95th percentile in its class by size and mass of other stars in its immediate region.

== History ==
=== Biblical ===
According to the [[Bible]]:{{Bible quote|God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.|book=Genesis|chap=1|verses=16}}

This took place during the fourth [[Days of creation|day]] of Creation Week. More to the point, the Sun is a part of God's creation, not a "god" in its own right.

=== Mythological ===
In contrast, virtually every other civilization has regarded the Sun as one of many gods, a Position that is not hard to understand given it's intended role and it's prominence in the daytime sky. The Egyptians called the Sun '''Ra''' or '''Re''', a deity whom, they said, created the world.<ref name=touregypt>Dunn, Jimmy. "[http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/re.htm Re (Ra) and Re-Horakhty]." <http://www.touregypt.net/>. Accessed March 5, 2008.</ref> The Egyptians also called the sun-disk '''Aten''', and for a brief period (during the reign of [[Pharaoh]] [[Amenhotep IV]] or '''Akhenaten'''), actually worshipped Aten as the one and only god of the universe.<ref name=touregypt2>Dunn, Jimmy. "[http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/aten.htm The Egyptian God Aten Before and After Akhenaten]." <http://www.touregypt.net/>. Accessed March 5, 2008.</ref> In [[Babylonia]] and [[Assyria]] the Sun was called '''Shamash''', a god who, because he could see everything happening on earth, was also associated with truth and justice.<ref name=MacKenzie>MacKenzie, Donald A. "[http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/mba/mba17.htm Chapter XI: The Golden Age of Babylonia]." ''Myths of Babylonia and Assyria'', IndyPublish.com (ISBN 1421962977), December 30, 2005, pp. 240-259. Accessed March 5, 2008, at <http://www.sacred-texts.com/></ref> The Greeks at first regarded ''Helios'' as a son of heaven and earth but later came to associate the Sun with their god of truth, '''Apollo'''. According to the [[Apache Creation Story]], [[Creator]], the One Who Lives Above, created the Sun by singing it into existence after he had created the Girl-Without-Parents.<ref>Welker, Glenn. "[http://www.indians.org/welker/creation.htm Apache Creation Story]" <Indians.org>, August 12, 2004. Accessed March 6, 2008.</ref>

The most common theme in all the Sun-worship cults is the association of the Sun with truth and justice personified. The second most common theme is the regarding of the Sun as the creator.

=== Secular ===
According to the [[materialism|materialist]] and [[uniformitarianism|uniformitarian]] view, what eventually became the solar system initially existed as a large, rotating [[cloud]] of [[dust]] and [[gas]], composed of hydrogen and helium produced in the [[Big Bang theory|Big Bang]] as well as small amounts of heavier [[element]]s. Around 4.57 billion years ago, the cloud began to contract, perhaps as a result of a [[shock wave]] from a nearby [[supernova]]. [[Inertia]] caused the rotating cloud to flatten into a disk. Most of the mass concentrated in the middle, and began to heat up. Eventually, the kinetic energy of the hydrogen was sufficient to overcome the [[electromagnetic]] repulsion between the protons, and fusion began. The resulting solar wind helped clear away much of the material which had not coalesced into planets or other orbiting bodies.<ref>"[http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/cosmic_evolution/docs/text/text_plan_1.html Cosmic Evolution, Epoch 4: Planetary Evolution]." ''[http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/cosmic_evolution/docs/splash.html Cosmic Evolution: From Big Bang to Humankind]'', Wright Center, [[Tufts University]]. Accessed March 6, 2008.</ref> The Sun is most likely a third-generation star, meaning it is in the latest generation.

Eventually, in a few billion years the sun will have expended most of it's Hydrogen, causing the outer shell to push outward and cool, turning into a Red giant, and Helium begins to be fused into Carbon. At this stage, Venus and Mercury will have been consumed by the now Red-Giant star, and possibly earth as well. Once the helium has been fused into carbon, there will not be enough heat to continue fusion to even heavier elements (as in larger stars), the core will collapse and the outer shell will be pushed off and form a Planetary Nebula, with a White Dwarf, and eventually a Black Dwarf at it's heart. <ref>http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/teachers/lessons/xray_spectra/background-lifecycles.html</ref>

== Orbital characteristics and galactic relationships ==
The Sun orbits the galactic center at a distance less than half the total estimated radius of the [[galaxy]], and in an orbit inclined about 25° from the galactic plane. The eccentricity of the Sun's orbit is 0.07, about average in comparison to the eccentricities of the [[planet]]s and [[dwarf planet]]s of the [[solar system]]. At present the Sun lies 50 light years north of the galactic plane and is continuing to climb north of it as it approaches [[apsis|perigalacticon]].<ref name=LeDrew>LeDrew, Glenn. "[http://ottawa.rasc.ca/astronotes/1997/an9701p3.html Our Galactic Home]." ''AstroNotes'', 1997. Accessed January 17, 2008.</ref>

==Properties and Characteristics==
The Sun accounts for 99.8% of our solar system's total mass. With a mass of 2 x 1030 kg, an atmospheric temperature of about 5800 K, and a [[luminosity]] of 4x1020 megawatts, the Sun is by far the most extraordinary object during the day-time sky and of our solar system.
However within our Milky Way [[galaxy]] it is one of probably 100 billion of the same types of stars.

By mass, it is composed of 72% [[hydrogen]], 26% [[helium]] and 2% trace elements of [[oxygen]], [[carbon]], [[neon]], [[nitrogen]], [[magnesium]], [[iron]], and [[silicon]].<ref>[http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/sun_worldbook.html World Book Encyclopedia @ NASA]</ref>

Core temperatures reach 15,000,000 K (K = Kelvin) while the Sun's surface or ''photosphere'' temperature is 5,800 K. When the photosphere is hit by the heat of the Sun the temperature drops to a minimum of 4,000 K. It then continues further until it encounters a thin layer of [[atmosphere]] roughly 10,000 kilometers deep called the ''chromosphere'' and reverses trend to rise to 8,000 K. Even further is another part of the Sun's total atmosphere called the ''corona'' that blends in with interplanetary space.

=== Relationship to Earth ===
The Sun produces a vast amount of [[energy]], only a tiny fraction of which the Earth receives, yet this small amount powers practically all [[life]] (and [[industry]]) on Earth, either directly or indirectly. It is also the main force controlling Earth's [[climate]] and [[weather]]. [[Plant]]s and other organisms capture the energy of the Sun in a process called [[photosynthesis]]. Animals and other [[heterotroph]]s obtain food and energy from consuming plants or from consuming [[animal]]s which have consumed the plants. Only a few microscopic organisms obtain energy directly from chemical reactions.

The tremendous light and heat that the Sun releases, and the delicate position that the [[Earth]] occupies in relation to the Sun, combine to make the Sun an integral part of sustaining life.

[[Human]] civilization, too, is dependent on the Sun. Much of humanity's [[industry|industrial]] energy needs are obtained through the combustion of [[fossil fuel]]s, the remains of dead plants and animals. Uneven heating of the atmosphere provides [[wind power]]. Also, the Sun evaporates water from lower-lying bodies of water; this then falls as rain and flows back down channels, providing hydroelectric power. On a limited basis, [[solar power]] is directly utilized. [[Geothermal energy]] and [[nuclear energy]] are examples of energy sources to which the Sun does not directly contribute.

=== Energy production and transport ===
The Sun produces its energy through [[nuclear fusion]].<ref name=sunspot1>"[http://www.exploratorium.edu/sunspots/research2.html Sunspots: Modern Research, Page 2]." ''The Exploratorium'', 1998. Accessed March 5, 2008.</ref> The favored model for energy production relies on tremendous pressures resulting from the Sun's own mass to overcome the natural electrostatic repulsive forces that normally keep hydrogen atoms from coming together and fusing.<ref name=Britannica/>

The model for hydrogen fusion includes these three equations:

<math>{}^0_{-1}\!e + {}^1_1\!\mbox{H} + {}^1_1\!\mbox{H} \to {}^2_1\!\mbox{H} + {}^0_0\!\nu + \mbox{1.44 MeV}</math>

<math>{}^2_1\!\mbox{H} + {}^1_1\!\mbox{H} \to {}^3_2\!\mbox{He} + \gamma + \mbox{5.49 MeV}</math>

<math>{}^3_2\!\mbox{He} + {}^3_2\!\mbox{He} \to {}^4_2\!\mbox{He}+ {}^1_1\!\mbox{H}+ {}^1_1\!\mbox{H} + \mbox{12.85 MeV}</math>

Here, <math>e</math> represents an electron, H means [[hydrogen]], He means [[helium]], <math>\gamma</math> represents a gamma photon, <math>\nu</math> represents a small, uncharged particle called a [[neutrino]] that is not supposed to have any proper mass, and the energy unit eV, or ''electron volt'', is the product of the charge on a single electron and the standard unit of electromotive force or electromotive potential.

The energy produced varies as the fourth power of the temperature--and at the temperatures thought to prevail in the Sun's core, matter exists, not as ordinary matter with atomic nuclei and electrons, but as [[plasma]]--a form of super-hot matter in which atoms are totally denuded of their electrons.

The first equation above is assumed to be the rate-limiting step. The neutrinos produced should have an energy of 0.26 MeV--too little energy to be detectable by current technology. But processes occurring after this step ought to produce higher-energy neutrinos that ''would'' be detectable. Such neutrinos have been detected, but at a flux much smaller than predicted. This indicates that the presumed rates for these subsequent processes are higher than the true rates, or else the neutrinos produced somehow transform to a different type of neutrino that would be unobservable. That in turn would imply that neutrinos ''do'' have rest mass.<ref name=Britannica/>

According to current models, some of this energy is transferred to the surface by convection in the outer 20-30% of the body of the Sun.<ref name=sunspot1/> [[Helium]] in this ''convective zone'' rises to or near the surface, releases its heat, and then sinks back to the center. Helium absorbs radiation more readily than does hydrogen, and for that reason the Sun is always getting marginally brighter with the passage of time.<ref name=Britannica/>

The remaining energy is transferred in the gamma photons, which must take a "random walk" to reach the corona of the Sun. Current models suggest that the light generated by these processes takes 50 million years to reach the surface.<ref name=sunspot1/>

=== Sunspots ===
The earliest observations of sunspots might have been made in the fourth century BC by the Greeks. Chinese astronomical records dating back to 28 BC include descriptions of changing dark patches on the Sun that might have been sunspots.<ref name=sunspot2>"[http://www.exploratorium.edu/sunspots/history.html Sunspots: History]." ''The Exploratorium'', 1998. Accessed March 5, 2008.</ref>

[[Galileo Galilei]] in 1613 was the first astronomer to study sunspots in any detail. It was a revolutionary observation, and one that clashed greatly with Western man's ideas of the heavens, propounded chiefly by Aristotle, as a perfect, unblemished place.<ref name=sunspot2/><ref name=heavens>[[Paul]] describes a region called the "third heaven" as the actual "heaven" where [[God]] has His throne. See {{Bible ref|book=II_Corinthians|chap=12|verses=2}}. But the Bible was not yet readily available to laymen in Galileo's day, and Western man might naturally confuse God's heaven with the lesser "heaven" that we call "outer space" today.</ref>

An amateur astronomer, Heinrich Schwabe, was the first to note the ''sunspot cycle'' in 1843.<ref name=sunspotcycle>"[http://www.exploratorium.edu/sunspots/research4.html The Sunspot Cycle]." ''The Exploratorium'', 1998. Accessed March 5, 2008.</ref> The sunspots are dark on account of their cooler temperature. This in turn is due to strong magenetic fields which allow the transport of heat via convective motion in the Sun. At times these sunspots can be 50,000 miles in diameter and appear in two bands, one being north and the other south in the direction of the Sun's equator.

Observations have also shown that the number and location of sunspots come and go in a semi-periodic 9.5 to 11-year solar cycles. At the start of this cycle they are about 30 degrees from the equator. Midway through, the cycle of the number of sunspots observed is maximum, usually about 15 degrees from the equator. Near the end of this on average 10.8-year cycle, the sunspots are very near the equator.<ref name=curious>"[http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/sun.php The Sun]." ''Curious about Astronomy? Ask an Astronomer'', Cornell University, October 18, 2007. Accessed March 5, 2008.</ref><ref name=Maunder>"[http://home.earthlink.net/~ponderthemaunderf/ Factors Affecting Global Temperature]." ''Ponder the Maunder''. Accessed March 5, 2008.</ref>

=== The solar magnetosphere ===
The magnetosphere oscillates in synchrony with the sunspots in a twenty-two-year cycle. The current amplitude of that cycle is 3.5 * 1029 N-m-T. This amplitude has been decaying since creation, but relatively slowly, with a half-life of 13,170 Julian years. In fact, according to Humphreys<ref name=Humphreys/>, the Sun's magnetic field has lost perhaps 25 percent of its strength since creation.

Measurements of the Sun's magnetic dipole moment have not been exact enough to demonstrate whether the amplitude of the field's oscillations is constant or decaying. If those oscillations are in fact decaying, then the Sun cannot be a dynamo.<ref name=Humphreys/>

== Problems for uniformitarian theories posed by the Sun ==
[[Uniformitarianism|Uniformitarians]] must admit that the Sun continues to brighten as it continues to fuse hydrogen into helium. In fact, by uniformitarian estimates, the Sun ought to be 40% brighter today than it was when the planets formed and 33% brighter than it was when life first formed (3.8 billion years ago by evolutionary assumptions). The Earth thus ought to be much hotter today than it once was--or rather, the Earth was much colder in the early days in which life has existed than it is today. The fossil record demonstrably does not bear this out.<ref name=Britannica/><ref name=Psarris>Psarris, Spike. ''Our Created Universe''. Seattle Creation Conference, 2007. Video presentation, 55 minutes.</ref> Uniformitarians answer that the Earth's atmosphere might be compensating for this increased brightness. (But these are often the same scientists who insist that industrial and transport-related introduction of [[carbon dioxide]] into Earth's atmosphere threatens to overheat the Earth, with potentially disastrous results.)

Uniformitarians have also had to admit that the Sun rotates about 200 times more slowly than the [[nebula hypothesis]] would predict, simply on account of the contraction of the solar mass into its present volume. This violates of the Law of Conservation of Angular Momentum. This "angular momentum" problem has been apparent for hundreds of years and remains unresolved to this day.<ref name=Psarris/>

The Sun's equatorial plane is inclined 7.25° to the ecliptic. (See [[Earth]].) By the nebula hypothesis, that inclination should be zero. The errant inclination poses an especially acute problem for the orbit of [[Neptune]]. Uniformitarians have speculated that a collision with an even larger object knocked the Sun off a true perpendicular to its present inclination--but no scientist has offered a convincing speculation as to what that object might be.<ref name=Psarris/>

Conventional astronomers, [[Carl Sagan]] among them, insist that our star is mediocre and unremarkable. Yet the G-type of star is relatively rare, and furthermore its mass and position in the galaxy lie within very narrow tolerances for the support of life. The Sun is also a singular star, not part of a binary--also a rare finding--and is remarkably stable in its energy output. These facts combine to make the Sun an unusually hospitable star for a planet to have life on it.<ref name=Psarris/>

Finally, the only reason that uniformitarians can cite for a great age of the Sun is the apparent great age of the Earth.<ref name=Britannica/>. Astronomer John Eddy has frankly admitted that the Sun itself gives no clue to any such tremendous age, and that the acceptance of a very young age of the Sun, like the six-thousand-plus years calculated by [[James Ussher]], might logically follow from a modicum of new evidence:<ref name=Psarris/><ref name=Ussher>Eddy, John. Remarks at a seminar reported in ''Geotimes'', 23:18, September, 1978. Quoted in [[Larry Pierce|Pierce, Larry]], "The Forgotten Archbishop", in [[James Ussher]], ''[[The Annals of the World]]'', [[Larry Pierce]], ed., Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2003 (ISBN 0890513600), pp. 891-2.</ref>{{cquote|There is no evidence based solely on solar observations, Eddy stated, that the Sun is 4.5-5 x 109 years old. "I suspect," he said, "that the Sun is 4.5-5 billion years old. However, given some new and unexpected results to the contrary, and some time for frantic recalculation and theoretical readjustment, I suspect that we could live with Bishop [[James Ussher|Ussher]]'s value for the age of the earth and Sun. I don't think we have much in the way of observational evidence in astronomy to conflict with that."}}

== External links ==

*[http://www.solarviews.com/eng/terms.htm Glossary]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{Solarsystem}}

Sun

2012-07-14T21:56:44Z

Drviolin:

{{Planet
|image=Moooghj.jpg
|caption=The Sun. In the upper-right area is an image of Earth to scale.
|primary=Galaxy
|periapsis=27,600 ly<ref name=Trapp>Trapp, Andrew. "[http://www.geocities.com/dreamer-71/timescales.html Timescales in Open, Flat, and Very Large Closed Universes]." ''From Now Until the End of Time...'' Accessed January 17, 2008.</ref>
|apoapsis=31,800 ly<ref name=apo>Author unknown. "[http://everything2.com/index.pl?node=apogalacticon Entry for 'Apogalacticon']." <http://everything2.com/> July 22, 2001. Accessed January 17, 2008.</ref>
|semimajor=29,700 ly<ref name=calc>Calculated</ref>
|eccentricity=0.07<ref name=apo/>
|sidereal=250,000,000 a
|orbitspeed=217 km/s
|inclination=25°
|reference=galactic plane
|siderealday = 25 da<ref name=Goddard>Williams, David R. "[http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/sunfact.html Sun Fact Sheet]." ''Goddard Space Flight Center ([[NASA]])'', September 1, 2004. Accessed January 17, 2008.</ref>
|solarday=27.2753 da<ref name=SunFact>Harvey, Samantha. "[http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Sun&Display=Facts&System=Metric Sun Facts and Figures]." ''[[NASA]]'', April 26, 2007. Accessed January 17, 2008.</ref><ref name=note1>This day is actually a synodic day and is the period for the same point on the Sun's equator to appear again directly facing the [[Earth]].</ref>
|mass=1.9891 * 1030 kg (332,848.616 * earth)<ref name=Goddard/><ref name=SunFact/>
|density=1408 kg/m³<ref name=Goddard/>
|surfacegrav=274.0 m/s² (27.94 ''g'')<ref name=Goddard/><ref name=SunFact/>
|escapespeed=618.02 km/s<ref name=Goddard/><ref name=SunFact/>
|meanradius=696,000 km<ref name=Goddard/>
|equatorradius=695,500 km<ref name=SunFact/>
|surfacearea=6,087,799,000,000 km² (11,935.176 * earth)<ref name=SunFact/>
|mintemp=4000 K<ref name=Goddard/><ref name=Britannica>"[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9110144/Sun Entry for 'Sun']." ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Accessed March 5, 2008.</ref>
|meantemp=5777 K<ref name=SunFact/>
|maxtemp=8000 K<ref name=Britannica/>
|composition=92.1% [[hydrogen]], 7.8% [[helium]]<ref name=SunFact/>
|color=Yellow-orange
|pmdm=3.5 * 1029<ref name=Humphreys>Humphreys, D. R. "[http://www.creationresearch.org/crsq/articles/21/21_3/21_3.html The Creation of Planetary Magnetic Fields]." ''Creation Research Society Quarterly'' 21(3), December 1984. Accessed April 29, 2008.</ref><ref name=est>Estimated</ref>
|cmdm=4.65 * 1029<ref name=Humphreys/>
|mdt=19000 a<ref name=Humphreys/>
|mhl=13170 a<ref name=calc/>
}}The '''Sun''', also known by the name '''Sol''' (either from the Greek, ''helios'' or from the [[Latin]] word ''sol'') is a [[Star|yellow dwarf star]] of spectral type G2V. The eight [[planet]]s, including Earth, orbit the Sun, as do countless other small objects.<ref name=Britannica/>

== Nomenclature ==
The Sun a classified as spectral class G2 V. The "G" means it is a moderately warm yellow star. The "2" means it is in the third hottest group of stars within type "G" (the scale runs from 0 to 9). The "V" is a Roman numeral for 5 and indicates the Sun's size. A size V star is a dwarf, main sequence star. The Sun is in the 95th percentile in its class by size and mass of other stars in its immediate region.

== History ==
=== Biblical ===
The [[Bible]] says:{{Bible quote|God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.|book=Genesis|chap=1|verses=16}}

This took place during the fourth [[Days of creation|day]] of Creation Week. More to the point, the Sun is a part of God's creation, not a "god" in its own right.

=== Mythological ===
In contrast, virtually every other civilization has regarded the Sun as one of many gods, a Position that is not hard to understand given it's intended role and it's prominence in the daytime sky. The Egyptians called the Sun '''Ra''' or '''Re''', a deity whom, they said, created the world.<ref name=touregypt>Dunn, Jimmy. "[http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/re.htm Re (Ra) and Re-Horakhty]." <http://www.touregypt.net/>. Accessed March 5, 2008.</ref> The Egyptians also called the sun-disk '''Aten''', and for a brief period (during the reign of [[Pharaoh]] [[Amenhotep IV]] or '''Akhenaten'''), actually worshipped Aten as the one and only god of the universe.<ref name=touregypt2>Dunn, Jimmy. "[http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/aten.htm The Egyptian God Aten Before and After Akhenaten]." <http://www.touregypt.net/>. Accessed March 5, 2008.</ref> In [[Babylonia]] and [[Assyria]] the Sun was called '''Shamash''', a god who, because he could see everything happening on earth, was also associated with truth and justice.<ref name=MacKenzie>MacKenzie, Donald A. "[http://www.sacred-texts.com/ane/mba/mba17.htm Chapter XI: The Golden Age of Babylonia]." ''Myths of Babylonia and Assyria'', IndyPublish.com (ISBN 1421962977), December 30, 2005, pp. 240-259. Accessed March 5, 2008, at <http://www.sacred-texts.com/></ref> The Greeks at first regarded ''Helios'' as a son of heaven and earth but later came to associate the Sun with their god of truth, '''Apollo'''. According to the [[Apache Creation Story]], [[Creator]], the One Who Lives Above, created the Sun by singing it into existence after he had created the Girl-Without-Parents.<ref>Welker, Glenn. "[http://www.indians.org/welker/creation.htm Apache Creation Story]" <Indians.org>, August 12, 2004. Accessed March 6, 2008.</ref>

The most common theme in all the Sun-worship cults is the association of the Sun with truth and justice personified. The second most common theme is the regarding of the Sun as the creator.

=== Secular ===
According to the [[materialism|materialist]] and [[uniformitarianism|uniformitarian]] view, what eventually became the solar system initially existed as a large, rotating [[cloud]] of [[dust]] and [[gas]], composed of hydrogen and helium produced in the [[Big Bang theory|Big Bang]] as well as small amounts of heavier [[element]]s. Around 4.57 billion years ago, the cloud began to contract, perhaps as a result of a [[shock wave]] from a nearby [[supernova]]. [[Inertia]] caused the rotating cloud to flatten into a disk. Most of the mass concentrated in the middle, and began to heat up. Eventually, the kinetic energy of the hydrogen was sufficient to overcome the [[electromagnetic]] repulsion between the protons, and fusion began. The resulting solar wind helped clear away much of the material which had not coalesced into planets or other orbiting bodies.<ref>"[http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/cosmic_evolution/docs/text/text_plan_1.html Cosmic Evolution, Epoch 4: Planetary Evolution]." ''[http://www.tufts.edu/as/wright_center/cosmic_evolution/docs/splash.html Cosmic Evolution: From Big Bang to Humankind]'', Wright Center, [[Tufts University]]. Accessed March 6, 2008.</ref> The Sun is most likely a third-generation star, meaning it is in the latest generation.

Eventually, in a few billion years the sun will have expended most of it's Hydrogen, causing the outer shell to push outward and cool, turning into a Red giant, and Helium begins to be fused into Carbon. At this stage, Venus and Mercury will have been consumed by the now Red-Giant star, and possibly earth as well. Once the helium has been fused into carbon, there will not be enough heat to continue fusion to even heavier elements (as in larger stars), the core will collapse and the outer shell will be pushed off and form a Planetary Nebula, with a White Dwarf, and eventually a Black Dwarf at it's heart. <ref>http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/teachers/lessons/xray_spectra/background-lifecycles.html</ref>

== Orbital characteristics and galactic relationships ==
The Sun orbits the galactic center at a distance less than half the total estimated radius of the [[galaxy]], and in an orbit inclined about 25° from the galactic plane. The eccentricity of the Sun's orbit is 0.07, about average in comparison to the eccentricities of the [[planet]]s and [[dwarf planet]]s of the [[solar system]]. At present the Sun lies 50 light years north of the galactic plane and is continuing to climb north of it as it approaches [[apsis|perigalacticon]].<ref name=LeDrew>LeDrew, Glenn. "[http://ottawa.rasc.ca/astronotes/1997/an9701p3.html Our Galactic Home]." ''AstroNotes'', 1997. Accessed January 17, 2008.</ref>

==Properties and Characteristics==
The Sun accounts for 99.8% of our solar system's total mass. With a mass of 2 x 1030 kg, an atmospheric temperature of about 5800 K, and a [[luminosity]] of 4x1020 megawatts, the Sun is by far the most extraordinary object during the day-time sky and of our solar system.
However within our Milky Way [[galaxy]] it is one of probably 100 billion of the same types of stars.

By mass, it is composed of 72% [[hydrogen]], 26% [[helium]] and 2% trace elements of [[oxygen]], [[carbon]], [[neon]], [[nitrogen]], [[magnesium]], [[iron]], and [[silicon]].<ref>[http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/sun_worldbook.html World Book Encyclopedia @ NASA]</ref>

Core temperatures reach 15,000,000 K (K = Kelvin) while the Sun's surface or ''photosphere'' temperature is 5,800 K. When the photosphere is hit by the heat of the Sun the temperature drops to a minimum of 4,000 K. It then continues further until it encounters a thin layer of [[atmosphere]] roughly 10,000 kilometers deep called the ''chromosphere'' and reverses trend to rise to 8,000 K. Even further is another part of the Sun's total atmosphere called the ''corona'' that blends in with interplanetary space.

=== Relationship to Earth ===
The Sun produces a vast amount of [[energy]], only a tiny fraction of which the Earth receives, yet this small amount powers practically all [[life]] (and [[industry]]) on Earth, either directly or indirectly. It is also the main force controlling Earth's [[climate]] and [[weather]]. [[Plant]]s and other organisms capture the energy of the Sun in a process called [[photosynthesis]]. Animals and other [[heterotroph]]s obtain food and energy from consuming plants or from consuming [[animal]]s which have consumed the plants. Only a few microscopic organisms obtain energy directly from chemical reactions.

The tremendous light and heat that the Sun releases, and the delicate position that the [[Earth]] occupies in relation to the Sun, combine to make the Sun an integral part of sustaining life.

[[Human]] civilization, too, is dependent on the Sun. Much of humanity's [[industry|industrial]] energy needs are obtained through the combustion of [[fossil fuel]]s, the remains of dead plants and animals. Uneven heating of the atmosphere provides [[wind power]]. Also, the Sun evaporates water from lower-lying bodies of water; this then falls as rain and flows back down channels, providing hydroelectric power. On a limited basis, [[solar power]] is directly utilized. [[Geothermal energy]] and [[nuclear energy]] are examples of energy sources to which the Sun does not directly contribute.

=== Energy production and transport ===
The Sun produces its energy through [[nuclear fusion]].<ref name=sunspot1>"[http://www.exploratorium.edu/sunspots/research2.html Sunspots: Modern Research, Page 2]." ''The Exploratorium'', 1998. Accessed March 5, 2008.</ref> The favored model for energy production relies on tremendous pressures resulting from the Sun's own mass to overcome the natural electrostatic repulsive forces that normally keep hydrogen atoms from coming together and fusing.<ref name=Britannica/>

The model for hydrogen fusion includes these three equations:

<math>{}^0_{-1}\!e + {}^1_1\!\mbox{H} + {}^1_1\!\mbox{H} \to {}^2_1\!\mbox{H} + {}^0_0\!\nu + \mbox{1.44 MeV}</math>

<math>{}^2_1\!\mbox{H} + {}^1_1\!\mbox{H} \to {}^3_2\!\mbox{He} + \gamma + \mbox{5.49 MeV}</math>

<math>{}^3_2\!\mbox{He} + {}^3_2\!\mbox{He} \to {}^4_2\!\mbox{He}+ {}^1_1\!\mbox{H}+ {}^1_1\!\mbox{H} + \mbox{12.85 MeV}</math>

Here, <math>e</math> represents an electron, H means [[hydrogen]], He means [[helium]], <math>\gamma</math> represents a gamma photon, <math>\nu</math> represents a small, uncharged particle called a [[neutrino]] that is not supposed to have any proper mass, and the energy unit eV, or ''electron volt'', is the product of the charge on a single electron and the standard unit of electromotive force or electromotive potential.

The energy produced varies as the fourth power of the temperature--and at the temperatures thought to prevail in the Sun's core, matter exists, not as ordinary matter with atomic nuclei and electrons, but as [[plasma]]--a form of super-hot matter in which atoms are totally denuded of their electrons.

The first equation above is assumed to be the rate-limiting step. The neutrinos produced should have an energy of 0.26 MeV--too little energy to be detectable by current technology. But processes occurring after this step ought to produce higher-energy neutrinos that ''would'' be detectable. Such neutrinos have been detected, but at a flux much smaller than predicted. This indicates that the presumed rates for these subsequent processes are higher than the true rates, or else the neutrinos produced somehow transform to a different type of neutrino that would be unobservable. That in turn would imply that neutrinos ''do'' have rest mass.<ref name=Britannica/>

According to current models, some of this energy is transferred to the surface by convection in the outer 20-30% of the body of the Sun.<ref name=sunspot1/> [[Helium]] in this ''convective zone'' rises to or near the surface, releases its heat, and then sinks back to the center. Helium absorbs radiation more readily than does hydrogen, and for that reason the Sun is always getting marginally brighter with the passage of time.<ref name=Britannica/>

The remaining energy is transferred in the gamma photons, which must take a "random walk" to reach the corona of the Sun. Current models suggest that the light generated by these processes takes 50 million years to reach the surface.<ref name=sunspot1/>

=== Sunspots ===
The earliest observations of sunspots might have been made in the fourth century BC by the Greeks. Chinese astronomical records dating back to 28 BC include descriptions of changing dark patches on the Sun that might have been sunspots.<ref name=sunspot2>"[http://www.exploratorium.edu/sunspots/history.html Sunspots: History]." ''The Exploratorium'', 1998. Accessed March 5, 2008.</ref>

[[Galileo Galilei]] in 1613 was the first astronomer to study sunspots in any detail. It was a revolutionary observation, and one that clashed greatly with Western man's ideas of the heavens, propounded chiefly by Aristotle, as a perfect, unblemished place.<ref name=sunspot2/><ref name=heavens>[[Paul]] describes a region called the "third heaven" as the actual "heaven" where [[God]] has His throne. See {{Bible ref|book=II_Corinthians|chap=12|verses=2}}. But the Bible was not yet readily available to laymen in Galileo's day, and Western man might naturally confuse God's heaven with the lesser "heaven" that we call "outer space" today.</ref>

An amateur astronomer, Heinrich Schwabe, was the first to note the ''sunspot cycle'' in 1843.<ref name=sunspotcycle>"[http://www.exploratorium.edu/sunspots/research4.html The Sunspot Cycle]." ''The Exploratorium'', 1998. Accessed March 5, 2008.</ref> The sunspots are dark on account of their cooler temperature. This in turn is due to strong magenetic fields which allow the transport of heat via convective motion in the Sun. At times these sunspots can be 50,000 miles in diameter and appear in two bands, one being north and the other south in the direction of the Sun's equator.

Observations have also shown that the number and location of sunspots come and go in a semi-periodic 9.5 to 11-year solar cycles. At the start of this cycle they are about 30 degrees from the equator. Midway through, the cycle of the number of sunspots observed is maximum, usually about 15 degrees from the equator. Near the end of this on average 10.8-year cycle, the sunspots are very near the equator.<ref name=curious>"[http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/sun.php The Sun]." ''Curious about Astronomy? Ask an Astronomer'', Cornell University, October 18, 2007. Accessed March 5, 2008.</ref><ref name=Maunder>"[http://home.earthlink.net/~ponderthemaunderf/ Factors Affecting Global Temperature]." ''Ponder the Maunder''. Accessed March 5, 2008.</ref>

=== The solar magnetosphere ===
The magnetosphere oscillates in synchrony with the sunspots in a twenty-two-year cycle. The current amplitude of that cycle is 3.5 * 1029 N-m-T. This amplitude has been decaying since creation, but relatively slowly, with a half-life of 13,170 Julian years. In fact, according to Humphreys<ref name=Humphreys/>, the Sun's magnetic field has lost perhaps 25 percent of its strength since creation.

Measurements of the Sun's magnetic dipole moment have not been exact enough to demonstrate whether the amplitude of the field's oscillations is constant or decaying. If those oscillations are in fact decaying, then the Sun cannot be a dynamo.<ref name=Humphreys/>

== Problems for uniformitarian theories posed by the Sun ==
[[Uniformitarianism|Uniformitarians]] must admit that the Sun continues to brighten as it continues to fuse hydrogen into helium. In fact, by uniformitarian estimates, the Sun ought to be 40% brighter today than it was when the planets formed and 33% brighter than it was when life first formed (3.8 billion years ago by evolutionary assumptions). The Earth thus ought to be much hotter today than it once was--or rather, the Earth was much colder in the early days in which life has existed than it is today. The fossil record demonstrably does not bear this out.<ref name=Britannica/><ref name=Psarris>Psarris, Spike. ''Our Created Universe''. Seattle Creation Conference, 2007. Video presentation, 55 minutes.</ref> Uniformitarians answer that the Earth's atmosphere might be compensating for this increased brightness. (But these are often the same scientists who insist that industrial and transport-related introduction of [[carbon dioxide]] into Earth's atmosphere threatens to overheat the Earth, with potentially disastrous results.)

Uniformitarians have also had to admit that the Sun rotates about 200 times more slowly than the [[nebula hypothesis]] would predict, simply on account of the contraction of the solar mass into its present volume. This violates of the Law of Conservation of Angular Momentum. This "angular momentum" problem has been apparent for hundreds of years and remains unresolved to this day.<ref name=Psarris/>

The Sun's equatorial plane is inclined 7.25° to the ecliptic. (See [[Earth]].) By the nebula hypothesis, that inclination should be zero. The errant inclination poses an especially acute problem for the orbit of [[Neptune]]. Uniformitarians have speculated that a collision with an even larger object knocked the Sun off a true perpendicular to its present inclination--but no scientist has offered a convincing speculation as to what that object might be.<ref name=Psarris/>

Conventional astronomers, [[Carl Sagan]] among them, insist that our star is mediocre and unremarkable. Yet the G-type of star is relatively rare, and furthermore its mass and position in the galaxy lie within very narrow tolerances for the support of life. The Sun is also a singular star, not part of a binary--also a rare finding--and is remarkably stable in its energy output. These facts combine to make the Sun an unusually hospitable star for a planet to have life on it.<ref name=Psarris/>

Finally, the only reason that uniformitarians can cite for a great age of the Sun is the apparent great age of the Earth.<ref name=Britannica/>. Astronomer John Eddy has frankly admitted that the Sun itself gives no clue to any such tremendous age, and that the acceptance of a very young age of the Sun, like the six-thousand-plus years calculated by [[James Ussher]], might logically follow from a modicum of new evidence:<ref name=Psarris/><ref name=Ussher>Eddy, John. Remarks at a seminar reported in ''Geotimes'', 23:18, September, 1978. Quoted in [[Larry Pierce|Pierce, Larry]], "The Forgotten Archbishop", in [[James Ussher]], ''[[The Annals of the World]]'', [[Larry Pierce]], ed., Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2003 (ISBN 0890513600), pp. 891-2.</ref>{{cquote|There is no evidence based solely on solar observations, Eddy stated, that the Sun is 4.5-5 x 109 years old. "I suspect," he said, "that the Sun is 4.5-5 billion years old. However, given some new and unexpected results to the contrary, and some time for frantic recalculation and theoretical readjustment, I suspect that we could live with Bishop [[James Ussher|Ussher]]'s value for the age of the earth and Sun. I don't think we have much in the way of observational evidence in astronomy to conflict with that."}}

== External links ==

*[http://www.solarviews.com/eng/terms.htm Glossary]

==References==
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