How Hot is the core of our Sun. Please tell me in Fahrenheit if possible?

Answer 1

Nobody really knows because the solar interior is completely opaque such that direct observation is impossible. But we can guess from what we observe from the surface of the sun. Based on known physics, this puts the core temperature at an estimated 15 million Kelvin. (27 Million degree Fahrenheit)

Answer 2

That is a really good question, and one which is surprisingly simple on the surface (or to a first order approximation).

First lets look at a pot of water at room temperature. (I know this seems strange, but bear with me on this.) If you leave it alone, after a few days, if nothing starts growing, the water level will go down as water evaporates off of the top, until finally you are left with an empty pot. Right?! At room temperature, the water isn't boiling, but every now and again a water molecule can "jump" into the air. How fast this happens is determined by hydrostatic equilibrium. (i.e. a balance between what is pushing one way with what is pushing the other way). In the case of the pot of water, it is how much pressure (from gravity pulling down on the atmosphere) is pushing down on the water, compared with how much the water molecules, which have some energy and want to move, are pushing up on the air.

The actual definition of boiling point is when the atmospheric pressure = the vapor pressure of the liquid. This is why at high elevations (like Mt. Ararat) the boiling point of water is much lower than at sea level (Istanbul). At higher elevations there is less air pressure to push on the water, so it can boil (escape) at a lower temperature. The boiling point of water is about 90 degrees Celsius at 3,000m instead of 100 degrees at sea level.

So gravity pushes on the atmosphere, and the weight of all that air pushes on the water to prevent it from boiling, UNLESS you add energy.

Well, the sun works the same way. If the Sun were not burning, gravity would compress all the gas down into a much smaller space. Since the sun is bigger than just a ball of gas held down by gravity, we know (along with other things, like the fact that it is glowing VERY brightly) that there must be some source of energy in there. (In the sun's case the only thing that can produce enough energy over such a long period of time is nuclear fusion.) If we can measure the size (radius) of the sun, and have a good estimate of its mass, using some physics we can calculate the temperature in the center needed to hold the rest of the sun up.

The reason that we can't just look at the radiation (light) that comes from the center of the sun to measure its temperature is that the sun is so dense that even the most energetic gamma-rays can only travel a few centimeters in the center before being absorbed by another atom, and then re-emitted a little while later.

(This is called Compton scattering).

If you light a fire, the farther away from the fire you get, the cooler it feels. This doesn't mean that less energy is given off, but that the same amount of energy that is sent from the fire is spread out over a larger area, and doesn't feel as hot. (This is called the Inverse Square Law) The surface of the sun glows at about 5,000 degrees C, not because it has nuclear fusion going on, but because it absorbs the energy from the center and then sends it on to us. A good animation showing this can be found at:

http://zebu.uoregon.edu/textbook/inv.html

The X-rays we see from the sun come from the Corona, a region of VERY hot (about 1,000,000 degrees) gas above the surface of the sun, but which we can only see during a total eclipse. (There will be a total Eclipse visible in Turkey this summer.)

The only thing that we can detect that comes directly from the center of the sun are neutrinos. These small particles are so non-reactive that over 99.9% of them go right through the earth without touching (affecting) anything. The small fraction that we do detect gives us information on the nuclear processes in the center of the sun.

More mathematical details are below:

Here is the full equation which equates the pressure of the gas to the volume it takes up:

dP/dr = -rho GM(r)/r^2

P is the pressure at radius r, rho is the density, usually denoted with the Greek letter. G is the gravitational constant. M(r) is the mass INTERIOR to radius r, since this is the material which pulls down on a particle at radius r.

If we calculate pressure using the simple estimate


P = nkT
where n is the number density particles, k is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant, and T is the temperature in degrees Kelvin, we get the relation:


T_c ~ (G M_sun / R_sun) (m_p/k)
Here k is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant and m_p is a proton mass, M_sun and R_sun are the solar mass and radius.


This gives T_c ~ (6.67e-8*2e33/7e10) (1.67e-24/1.38e-16) ~ 2.3e7 K

Which is actually quite close to more accurately derived numbers. Just knowing the solar radius and Mass and that the sun is supported in hydrostatic equilibrium basically sets the interior temperature. More detailed modeling uses more complex and accurate microphysics and fits the observed radius, mass and solar luminosity to derive the run of temperature in the sun.

Text pulled in its entirety from :

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_astro/answers/981216a.html

So if you manage to calculate that insane equation you get : 13.6 MK (MegaKelvin) So 13.6 million Kelvin.

Since Kelvin is Celsius that starts at absolute zero (Absolute Zero being -273.15 degrees below 0 Celsius... The point at which all atomic movement ceases.)

Converting to Fahrenheit :

F= ((K-273.15)*1.8)+32
So, filling in the equation : ((13,600,000-273.15)*1.8)+32 = F

((13599726.85)*1.8) +32 = 24479540.33

So Fahrenheit Tempature of the core of the sun is around 24,479,540.33 give or take a couple of hundred thousand degrees.

Cheers.

Answer 3

The site shown below has lots of interesting information about the sun.

It gives the temperature of the suns "core" as 15,600,000 Kelvin and that translates to about the same in centigrade (15,599,727 but that is way more significant than the original number) and

in Farenheit that would be about 28 million degrees.

http://www.seds.org/billa/tnp/sol.html

Answer 4

It is 27 million 32 degrees fahrenheit, because it is 15 million celsius. One degree fahrenheit equals (9/5)C+32

Answer 5

The most scientifically based guesses in the past 25 years put it somewhere in the 25M to 30M degrees F range, with 27 Million being the most common answer.

Answer 6

15,000,000° C here it is in celcius can not make it so easy for you to do your homework but you can go here and check out this web site... for all the answers about the sun... lol Oh by the way it is there in F so you dont have to calculate to much. :)

Answer 7

The temperature is 15.6 million Kelvin

Answer 8

22,000,000 C x 1.8 + 32 = 39,600,032 F.

Answer 9

27,000,000° F