Our Sun has inspired mythology in almost all cultures, including ancient Egyptians, Aztecs, Native Americans, and Chinese. We now know that the Sun is a huge, bright sphere of mostly ionized gas, about 4.5 billion years old, and is the closest star to Earth at a distance of about 150 million km. The next closest star - Proxima Centauri - is nearly 268,000 times farther away. There are millions of similar stars in the Milky Way Galaxy (and billions of galaxies in the universe). Our Sun supports life on Earth. It powers photosynthesis in green plants and is ultimately the source of all food and fossil fuel. The connection and interaction between the Sun and the Earth drive the seasons, currents in the ocean, weather, and climate.
Fe IX/X (171 Å). Taken at 19:00 UT, 28 February 2000.
This image was taken by SOHO's EIT (Extreme-Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope) and is courtesy of the EIT Consortium. The wavelength is iron.
SOHO/MDI, SOHO/LASCO (ESA & NASA) SOHO is a project of international cooperation between ESA and NASA. |
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