The
sun is the nearest star to our planet Earth. Astronomers observe fine details on
the surface which cannot be observed on other stars due to the great distance.The closest star to the sun is Alpha Centauri It appears as a brilliant
yellow white star. Astronomers can see in a telescope that Alpha Centauri is
divide in to twin stars that orbit each other in 80 years . Proxima Centauri is
a third member of the system and is a red dwarf star .The sun 864.000 miles in
diameter is only an average star in size .The sun lies three quarters of the
distance from the centre to the edge of one of the galaxy spiral arms . The sun
is a typical star, a ball of glowing gas gives us sunlight and heat and life to
planet Earth .
The Sun is by far the largest object in our solar
system, containing more than 99% of the latter's total mass. The importance
of the Sun to the Earth is one of the main reasons scientists want to
understand it. In fact, the impetus for solar science early this century
came not from astronomers, but from geologists. At the beginning of this
century, they believed that the oldest rocks on the Earth are about 4
billion years old and that the Sun was 4.5 - 5 billion years old. The Sun is
about 4,500 million (4,500,000,000) years old and will probably stay almost
the same for another 5,000 million years.">
International
Space Station ISS
is a research facility currently
being assembled in space. The space station is in a low Earth orbit and can
be seen from Earth with the naked eye: It has an average altitude of 360 km
above the surface of the Earth, and travels at an average speed of 27,744 km
(17,240 mi) per hour, completing 15.79 orbits per day.
Modern astronomers believe that the solar system is by
no means unique, on our Milky Way and galaxies into the universe are
millions other planetary systems with possible life forms like on planet Earth.The Sun is by far the
largest object in our solar system, containing more than 99% of the latter's
total mass. The importance of the Sun to the Earth is one of the main reasons
scientists want to understand it. In fact, the impetus for solar science early
this century came not from astronomers, but from geologists. At the beginning of
this century, they believed that the oldest rocks on the Earth are about 4
billion years old and that the Sun was 4.5 - 5 billion years old. The Sun is
about 4,500 million (4,500,000,000) years old and will probably stay almost the
same for another 5,000 million years.
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•Moon Atlas •Astronomy
picture of the day's From
a report in the Daily Telegraph, the recent discovery of
Earth-like planets outside our solar system and the launch of a
major NASA mission in 2009 is bringing extra-terrestrial contact a
dramatic step closer. We really believe that in the next 20 years or so we are
going to learn a great deal more about life beyond Earth.
