Pluto is only half as wide as the U.S. page 14 and other facts about Pluto The moon may have been part of Earth page 16 and other facts about the moon Earth has a second mini moon page 18 and other facts about other moons Jupiter protects us from deadly comets page 20 and other facts about Jupiter
Our solar system is middle aged page 22 and other facts about the solar system Life may be possible on other planets moons page 24 and other facts about life forms on moons Even More Facts page 26 Glossary page 28 Further Information page 31 Index page 32
that surround the burning star In fact the whole of FACT 1 YOU LIVE INSIDE THE SUN Earth is inside the sun's atmosphere the layer of gases our solar system sits within the sun's atmosphere WARNING LOOKING AT THE SUN EVEN FOR A SECOND CAN SERIOUSLY AND PERMANENTLY DAMAGE YOUR EYESIGHT DON'T DO IT Layers of atmosphere The sun's atmosphere is made up of three layers The layer closest to the sun's surface is the photosphere and it's so bright that usually it's the only part of the sun we can see Next comes the chromosphere The gases in this layer get hotter and hotter as they move out reaching around 17,500 F 9,700 C But that's nothing compared to the outer layer the corona FACT 2 The sun makes up more than 99 of the mass of the solar system Jupiter makes up most of the rest
The mighty corona The corona is around 200 to 500 times hotter than the chromosphere layer below it reaching up to 5.4 million ºF 3 million C The corona stretches around 3 million miles 5 million km into space and then turns into the solar wind the sun's flowing atmosphere that stretches across the solar system Earth is within the reach of this solar wind but luckily it cools down a lot before it gets to us Magnetic power The corona's extreme heat might be linked to the fact that the sun is powerfully magnetic Electric currents within the sun create a magnetic field that affects our entire solar system One of the things this field does is protect us from 90 of the deadly cosmic rays moving through space The amount of radiation that makes it through to Earth is low enough not to cause us problems The corona Earth Sun Earth's magnetic field Solar winds Space weather Changes in the sun's magnetic field such as powerful magnetic storms can affect us on Earth The sun shoots out solar winds streams of speeding energy particles that can overcome Earth's own magnetic field and make our electronic objects stop working properly The Northern and Southern Lights occur when solar winds hit Earth's atmosphere
