Problem set 5A
About how hot is the Sun's core?
1.5 x 107 K
The time between one sunspot maximum and the next one is about
11 years
How many times more massive is the Sun than the Earth?
300,000
About how hot is the Sun's photosphere?
6000 K
Neutrinos have never been detected experimentally.
False
Sunspots appear dark because they are hotter than the surrounding gas of the photosphere.
False
The proton-proton chain releases energy because mass is created in the process.
False
There are as many absorption lines in the solar spectrum as there are elements present in the Sun.
False
The density and temperature in the solar corona are much higher than in the photosphere.
False Feedback: The corona is hotter, heated up by magnetic storms above the photosphere. But the Sun's density decreases from center to the outside, and the corona has very little material. The photosphere is much denser.
The most abundant element in the Sun is hydrogen.
True
The density of the Sun is closest to that of which of the objects listed below?
a comet Feedback: Comets are made of ice, and their density is about the density of water, close to the Sun's density.
The primary source of the Sun's energy is
fusion of light nuclei to make heavier ones
The Sun is a stable star in which
gravity balances the force from pressure
The Sun's energy is produced by the fusion of
hydrogen to helium
The Sun spins on its axis roughly once each
month
Compared with Earth's diameter, the Sun's diameter is about
one hundred times larger
The visible light we see from the Sun comes from what part of the Sun?
photosphere
The density of the Sun is closest to the density of
water