I'm not really sure I used accurate words in my Q, but as we know the surface of the sun is filled with grains, which pass light through. Why is it so?
2007-08-03 05:19:00 · 5 answers · asked by Andromeda 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
I know it's related to photons, but I wonder why they make granulations, as you said. :-?
2007-08-03 05:57:49 · update #1
"Granulations" have turned out to be boiling convection currents. The brightness of the sun's glowing surface varies by temperature. Where heat comes up from the interior, it is brighter. Where cooler material is sucked down between these "roils" it leaves a lightly darker line between the cells.
Sunlight comes from all the cells equally. We get light from all of the surface that faces Earth, not just the one grain that is closest to us.
2007-08-03 05:44:49 · answer #1 · answered by Owl Eye 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The granules on the Sun are the tops of convection cells. Basically the surface of the Sun is like the top of a pot of boiling water, with hot material from below reaching the surface, making a pattern of bubbles there. It isn't really related to sending out light at all. The material (mostly hydrogen gas on the Sun) glows white because it is white hot. The heat comes from deep inside the Sun where nuclear reactions are producing vast amounts of energy. The core of the Sun is like the fire under the pot.
2007-08-03 12:58:41 · answer #2 · answered by campbelp2002 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I had no idea the surface of the sun was filled with grains!
I always thought that the sun was a giant sphere of hydrogen and helium, which gives off light (in discrete packets known as photons) due to the fusion of two hydrogen atoms... but what do I know.
2007-08-03 12:24:47 · answer #3 · answered by tastywheat 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The "grains" you're referring to are "heat cells", about the size of Texas. This has to do with the convection currents in the dense mantle of the sun. On Earth, we have "hot spots" in our mantle that rise up in places - it's why the Hawaiian Islands formed - and on the sun it's similar, but the physics are a bit different. Hot spots occur *everywhere* under the surface of the sun, and as one area expels it's heat & light energy, it sinks back while another area next to it starts it's cycle. There are valleys as deep as 100 miles that form & then flatten out as these cells expand & contract.
2007-08-03 12:53:24 · answer #4 · answered by quantumclaustrophobe 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As per photon theory light is sent out like a wave.
2007-08-03 12:25:05 · answer #5 · answered by goring 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋