The sun is like a giant nuclear reactor in space and even though it's so far away...how do we feel the sun's warmth on a hot, cloudless day? Judging by the distance the planet is from the sun...we really shouldn't be feeling the heat at all. So how come we feel it's warmth?
2007-03-14 08:35:24 · 4 answers · asked by mrbragg2k 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
There is nothing between us to absorb the heat being given off by the sun. Heat from the sun flows to us in the form of electromagnetic energy. This energy strikes the earth and we feel the heat. If it is a cloudy day some of the energy is absorbed by clouds before it strike the surface of the earth. Since there are no clouds in space we get the full effect of the energy.
2007-03-14 08:39:16 · answer #1 · answered by physandchemteach 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
What we are feeling is infrared radiation. There are three ways to propagate heat, conduction, convection and radiation. The first two require a medium to carry the heat, the third does not. The infrared, and some other wavelengths, act just like light, travelling from the Sun to Earth, except that instead of being visible, they excite the molecules of whatever they meet, air, Earth, skin, etc., causing them to heat up.
It's like the difference between baking and broiling. Baking heats the air which conducts heat into the food. A broiler radiates infrared radiation directly at the food.
2007-03-14 09:24:13 · answer #2 · answered by skepsis 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Heat is delivered by photons - and so many are pouring in from the sun that we feel it quite readily.
The stars at night ALSO deliver heat - but they are so much further away, and the number of photons arriving from them are so much fewer than the sun, that we can't feel it.
Considering the amount of energy the sun DOES give off, (tons of hydrogen being turned into helium every second), it's difficult to fathom why you think we shouldn't be feeling it...
2007-03-14 08:45:53 · answer #3 · answered by quantumclaustrophobe 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
because the actual undeniable actuality that the solar is a good sized vast ball of gas that's on hearth, (with gas in the middle) and the priority conserving it at the same time is that's own gravity, plus the gravity of the Galaxy. the nice and cozy temperature is the added of the chemical reaction in the middle of the solar.
2016-12-02 00:17:36 · answer #4 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋