Chapter 2 of 12All chapters
Chapter 2 of 12
The Sun
An ordinary star that happens to be close.
What it is
The Sun is a yellow dwarf star, unremarkable except for being ours. It fuses hydrogen into helium in its core, converting a little mass into an enormous amount of energy.
- Its light takes about eight minutes and twenty seconds to reach Earth.
- It is roughly halfway through a ten billion year life.
What it does to us
Sunlight drives weather, plant growth and the whole food chain. Its magnetic activity rises and falls on an eleven year cycle, and strong flares can disturb satellites and power grids.