Sun's Properties 1
This layer is the center of the Sun and is where the Sun’s energy is produced.
What is the core?
This is the Sun’s visible surface, where sunspots can appear.
What is the photosphere?
This property of a star is shown on the horizontal x-axis of an H-R diagram.
What is surface temperature?
Stars located near the bottom of an H-R diagram have this kind of luminosity.
What is low luminosity?
This process combines hydrogen nuclei and releases enormous amounts of energy inside the Sun.
What is nuclear fusion?
This layer surrounds the Sun and is its outer atmosphere.
What is the corona?
This property, also called a star’s absolute brightness, is shown on the vertical y-axis.
What is luminosity?
These stars are hot but have low luminosity and are found in the lower-left region of the H-R diagram.
What are white dwarfs?
In this layer of the Sun, hotter plasma rises while cooler plasma sinks, transferring energy toward the surface.
What is the convection zone?
Energy moves through this layer mainly by radiation before reaching the convection zone.
What is the radiation zone?
These stars are found toward the left side of an H-R diagram because they have higher surface temperatures.
What are blue stars?
These stars are generally found high on the H-R diagram because they are very luminous.
What are giants and supergiants?
This solar feature is a cooler, darker region found on the Sun’s visible surface.
What is a sunspot?
This solar feature is a large loop of glowing plasma that extends outward from the Sun.
What is a prominence?
This diagonal band contains most stars, including our Sun, and runs from hot, bright stars toward cool, dim stars.
What is the main sequence?
A red star appears on the right side of the H-R diagram. Compared with a blue star on the left, this red star generally has this kind of surface temperature.
What is a lower/cooler surface temperature?
A sudden explosive release of energy.
What is a solar flare?
A student says, “Sunspots are found in the Sun’s core because they are darker than the rest of the Sun.” Explain what is wrong with this statement.
What is: Sunspots are cooler, darker regions on the photosphere, not in the core?
A star is about 3,000 K, has very high luminosity, and is located in the upper-right region of the H-R diagram.
What is a red supergiant?
A star is hotter than the Sun but much less luminous. Which major H-R diagram region would it most likely belong to?
What is the white dwarf region?