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Last Post 3/19/2012 8:43 AM by  Terry Kucera
sun boiling?
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3/19/2012 6:48 AM
    hi im arlin and my question is, does the sun boil or does its just give off energy?
    Tags: temperature

    Terry Kucera



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    3/19/2012 8:43 AM

    Hi Arlin,

    When water boils it is going from one "state" - liquid to another - a gas. The Sun is not doing that. It is all made of something called "plasma" which is sort of like a superheated, ionized gas.

    However, the layer of the Sun just below the surface is doing something to make it look sort of like a pot of hot cereal on the stove. Hot material raises up from below, cools and then sinks back down. This cause the surface to look like it is boiling.

    Here is an image showing this "granulation" pattern near a sunspot:

    http://www.staff.science.uu.nl/~rutte101/dot/albums/images/20050708-mosaic-gb.png

    Here are videos showing it:

    www.suntrek.org/images/movies/pb_gran_movie1.mpg

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-UjQwTfjGg

    cheers,

    Terry

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