hi my name is Kylie and welcome to our Sun when the Sun is out we'd love to
play outside but did you know our Sun is much much more important than just
helping us play outdoors let's get to know some amazing facts about our one
hot topic our Sun
you probably wouldn't think the daytime is the best time to see a star would you
well it is the Sun is a star first of all it is a very important to never look
at the Sun directly without eye protection even sunglasses are not
strong enough ask your parents or a teacher about the safest way to view the
Sun astronomers are scientists who study outer space have names for different
types of stars they main stars based upon their size how hot they are what
they are made of and how brightly they burn our Sun is a yellow giant star and
the only star in our solar system the most common type of star in the Milky
Way galaxies are red giant stars the Milky Way galaxy is where our solar
system is our Sun is a gigantic sphere or ball of hot gases most of this gas is
hydrogen and helium there are also small amounts of carbon nitrogen oxygen and
even tinier amounts of neon iron silicon magnesium and sulfur if you took all the
objects in our solar system and weighed them the total would be huge but
ninety-nine point eight percent of that almost all of it comes from the weight
of our Sun one of the coolest yes coolest features of our Sun is its
powerful magnetic field this energy is so strong it builds up and bursts out
from the Sun surface from Earth these flares appear as spots called sunspots
they are darker in appearance from the rest of the Sun surface because they
have a lower temperature than the surrounding area
astronomers only view these sunspots with special lenses and equipment so
they do not damage their eyes lucky for us they have amazing pictures from using
this equipment there are other types of energy and particles that hit our earth
every day our magnetic field created by the
Earth's core in rotation helps shield us from a lot of it since this shield is
weaker at the poles some of the energy gets into our atmosphere and creates the
beautiful light show known as the aurora or as some people call them the Northern
Lights these amazing light shows can be seen in either the northern hemisphere
where the Aurora's are called aurora borealis and in the southern hemisphere
where they are called aurora australis the close you are to either the North or
the South Poles the more likely you are to see the Aurora's a hot day on Earth
is over 80 degrees Fahrenheit but our Sun reaches temperatures of over 27
million degrees Fahrenheit it is not like a planet like our earth and has no
solid surface to stand upon it would take over 1 million Earth's to fit
inside the Sun that's one huge ball of hot gas astronomers have named the
distance between the earth and our Sun as astronomical unit or au for short
this distance is about 93 million miles and the light from it takes about eight
minutes to get to earth our Sun gives off heat and light that gives living
things on earth what they need to survive
to begin our Sun is essential or necessary for plants to survive they use
the energy in the sun's light rays to make food in a process called
photosynthesis non plant life also depends on our Sun for survival we've
probably heard how important it is to protect yourself from too much Sun we
will talk about that in a bit but did you also know that humans need some
sunlight to be healthy it's true humans need sunlight to help them produce
vitamin D which is essential or really important for helping us produce healthy
bones and a healthy immune system we get up to 90 percent of our vitamin D from
the Sun of course staying on the Sun too long is not a good thing either the
amount of time you spend in the Sun with sunscreen or protective clothing is
called sun exposure the sun's ultraviolet rays can cause our skin to
burn getting a sunburn is not only painful but it can lead to health issues
later on in life how can you prevent having skin or health issues be Sun
smart wearing sunglasses a hat with a wide brim swimsuit cover-ups and using
safe sunscreen are all ways to protect yourself one using sunscreen it is very
important to carefully follow the directions always check with a parent or
adult to make sure you are being Sun smart and Sun safe solar energy is
another important way our Sun helps us solar energy is made when humans use
solar cells or especially made panels that collect the sun's rays to change
the sun's energy into electricity using the sun's energy in this way is easy
less expensive and doesn't pollute our environment like other forms of energy
production it is also an inexhaustible energy
source meaning it will never run out now that you are cool and know about our
amazing hot Sun you are now Sun smart be sure to check out our other amazing
science and astronomy videos and games as always stay Sun safe and be clever