The Young Sun
Curriculum

1.) Movements of the Sun
When we say the sun “rises and sets” what we really mean is that the earth itself rotates in such a way that the sun actually appears on the horizon and appears to travel throughout the sky the finally appears to set on the opposite or Western horizon. This is a common expression used to describe the time of day, and now with modern astronomy we know that actually the sun is not rotating around the earth but the earth spins on its polar axis as it orbits the sun.
The sun however is not still. It drifts along with the rotation of our Galaxy “The Milky Way” but there is no need to worry because the closest star Proxima Centauri is a very long distance away and is actually caught up in the same galactic drift.

2.) The Size and Distance of Our Sun
Compared to earth the sun is enormous. It would take 109 earth diameters to span across the disk of the Sun. If the earth is 7,926 miles in diameter which would make the Sun’s diameter would be ______________________ miles across.
Exercise: To understand more clearly take a ruler and measure your pencil eraser which should have a diameter of around 1/4 of an inch. Then with your parents permission find an area to draw a circle that is 2 feet 3 inches in diameter. Sidewalk chalk works best. Compare the eraser with the circle you have drawn and that is the how large the sun is compared to the earth.

The sun is approximately 93 million miles from the earth at any given time. The earth actually orbits the sun in a slightly elliptical or egg shaped orbit which varies in distance about 5 million miles. Astronomers use a measurement based on this distance of 93 million miles which they call an “Astronomical unit” or AU.

Exercise: You can find a comparison of distance to the sun. Use the same chalk drawing above which is 2 feet 3 inches in diameter. From one edge measure a distance of 242 feet 2 inches Have you dad step it off for you and mark it. Then have another member of your family stand in the chalk circle and then go stand with your eraser at the place your dad marked. You can then be able to grasp the vastness of the distances in our created universe.

Parts of the Sun
Scientists love to classify things. That is they put things in a particular order according to where it is located or how it is made. The sun also has parts.

The Corona
The Corona is the atmosphere of the sun. It is made up of very hot glowing gases. The gases are generated from the nuclear processes deep inside the sun that have released energy to the surface. Material ejected from the sun extends some 4 billion miles or 110 Astronomical units or 110 times the distance you dad stepped off in the yard. (About 5-1/2 miles) This atmosphere is called the heliosphere. The heliosphere terminates when it hits what is called the interstellar medium. The gases and cosmic rays that are coming from the center of our galaxy the “Milky Way” are colliding with the gases and rays from the sun at a place called the “Heliopause”.
Closer to home, the Corona and the “chromosphere” close to the sun, is very hot. The temperature there averages about 2 million degrees Fahrenheit.

The Photosphere
The Photosphere is the actual surface of the sun. It is a very violent place with flares of hot glowing gases called plasma arching up from the surface, some over 1 million miles. Scientists refer to the flares as prominences. The strength of these prominences would be the equivalent to hundreds of thousands of nuclear bombs.
In recent years with new technology, scientists have uncovered a very confusing network of magnetic disturbances in what is called the magnetosphere.(Go to iachod.com and watch Coronal Mass Ejections video) These disturbances are ejected outward harmlessly into the solar system at some 800 miles per second. However, from time to time, these ejections are aimed directly at earth. NOAA (National Oceanic Atmosphere Association) Watches for these ejections and issue out ejection warnings much like they do storm warnings. These particle that are highly charged can actually ruin the circuitry in communication satellites so NOAA send out warnings so these companies can take appropriate action to in sure the safety of their equipment.
The Photosphere is not as hot as the Corona and averages around 10 thousand degrees F.

The Core
The core of the sun is where the nuclear processes occur that release energy. The process of fusion is where hydrogen is compresses together which eventually forms Helium. Hydrogen is the smallest of all elements and only has 1 proton and 1 electron. As the hydrogen fuses to form helium and emits an electron and a neutrino energy is released.
The difference between fusion and fission is where fusion forces small atoms together to release energy, fission breaks larger atoms apart to release energy. It seems that the element iron is the point where these two reverse. If a larger atom than iron is fused, it will actually consume energy rather than emit it. And visa-versa, when an atom smaller than iron is split apart it actually consumes more energy than it emits.
For this process of Hydrogen fusion to take place there must be a tremendous amount of heat and pressure. This Pressure is provided by the extreme gravitational force from the sheer mass of the sun. All this pressure is forced to the core of the sun compressing the hydrogen atoms together and cause them to smash into one another forming Helium. This process is only beginning to be understood by scientist and developed for fusion energy power here on earth.
The Ideal gas Law is the formula used to understand the heat and compression of gas. As the atoms are compressed in this case by gravity the heat also increases and the energy output increases. The formula is expressed as PV = nRT.
P= the pressure that is applied to the gas.
V= the volume of gas
n= the number of moles of gas. (The mole is the amount of substance of a system which contains as many elementary entities as there are atoms in 0.012 kilogram of carbon 12; its symbol is "mol." )
R= the gas constant which is dependent on pressure, temperature and volume.
T= the temperature in degrees Kelvin.
http://www.ausetute.com.au/idealgas.html

A Main Sequence Star
The Sun is classified by astronomers as a main sequence star. Most stars are main sequence stars which simply means that these stars give off their energy and light by Hydrogen to Helium fusion. But the sun is not ordinary among these types of stars in that it gives off much more light than over 85% of the other stars of its class. This class is referred to by astronomers as the spectral (light) class G2. Astronomers classify stars by the light they emit. The actual scientific study of Astronomy is that of spectral lines on a graph.
Activity: You will need a prism and a sunny day.
Take the prism and allow the sun to project light through it onto a white piece of paper. You will see all the colors of the rainbow on that piece of paper. While the prism is held still by a family member, mark the spectral lines (where the colors change) of each color and label them. Measure between each color and compare them. Do the same with different sources of light. (alight bulb or a car head lamp, and a flash light) Note the differences. Is red wider than blue? Is the green the widest? Or red?
Unlike all of the sun’s G2 counterparts, the sun is a very stable star, and even though it does occasionally have a few flares, these flares are tiny compared to most stars in its class. Astronomer have searched the Galaxy and have classified many stars that are the same relative size and output as our sun. They call them solar analogues or proxy-stars. After years of study they have found that all G2 spectral stars are somewhat different than our sun. Some vary in brightness and heat others are binary such as Alpha Centauri. Binary simply means two stars grouped close together. A planet like Earth would not be like Earth if it orbited in a binary system. The gravity between two suns could tear the tiny planet apart. Or the heat from two suns would be so great that nothing could live there.
Other G2 spectral class stars are extreme in their output. They vary upward to 10% in their out put. Massive ejections are very common on these stars and essentially any planet orbiting around one of these stars would be burnt to a crisp very often several times per week..
To date astronomers have not found a star like our sun.

Location of The Sun
The Sun is located in the Milky Way Galaxy. If you were to walk outside on a dark night in a place where there is not a great deal of light pollution, you will see a milky river of stars flowing across the sky. You are looking through the edge of our home galaxy. However, the sun is not located just anywhere in the Milky Way, it is located in what astronomers have recognized as the “Habitable Zone” of our home galaxy. This zone is not too far toward the edge of the galaxy which is devoid of the proper metals such as iron, magnesium, zinc etc. that are required to support life. But at the same time it is not too close to the center of the galaxy where the concentration of stars is much greater. These stars in the core are very violent and give off lethal amounts of radiation, so we can see that it would not be conducive to life there either.

Distance from the Earth.
As we have seen the Earth is located approximately 93 million miles from the sun. This distance on varies by 2.5 million miles either way over the course of an orbit. This would seem like a great distance, and it is to us. However, in the scheme of things and considering that the next closest planet Venus, is 27 million miles closer, and Mars is 49 million miles farther away, it is not really that much. We can see that God set in exactly the right place, not only in the Milky Way Galaxy, and in our distance from the Sun, but also He has also given the right kind of star as our sun, which is very stable.

Light Output From the Sun
Our sun is extremely rare and even as of now we can say, utterly unique. It’s light is suited perfectly for the needs of life on earth. Yes, too much of it and you can get a sunburn, and the medical field has linked the rays to some forms of skin cancer, but life still thrives because of the light and energy it emits. We have already looked at the spectrum of its light, we see that the sun emits all colors of the spectrum. Each color of light is reflected by the color of an object. For instance: We see a red rose. The red pigment (colored substance) absorbs all the colors of the spectrum except red. This red color or wavelength is reflected back to our eyes and we see it as red. Even if a person is color blind, the light is still red, because it is in the red end of the spectrum. Red light has longer wavelengths than those on the opposite end of the spectrum, which is blue.
These light particles that travel in waves are called photons. These Photons stimulate a substance called chlorophyl in plants to start a process known as Photosynthesis. This photon from the sun strikes a chlorophyl cell in the plant which then has the energy required to make sugar. This sugar is used in the plant’s growth and functions. Without the right light from the sun, plants would not grow and therefore life would not be possible on Earth in its present form.

Star Formation
There are many ideas about the way our sun as well as other stars formed. These ideas will always come from a particular world view. In other words how someone may view his or her origins. It is historical science and really the only evidence that one would have to work with is the facts that we can see and measure today. If some one believes that the universe came into existence in a vast series of random processes then the sun and the stars formed by natural processes. Their theory demands it. On the other hand, if someone believes the Biblical account of how our sun formed then they will reject this view. We would still have the same measurements and evidence, but the difference is, that we have a different starting point.
Scientifically, neither can prove their position because neither were there to see it happen.
We will look at some of the popular mechanisms of how those who say natural processes are the cause of star formation.
Inductive Cooling
There are many gas clouds in space. These are called nebulae by astronomers. In these clouds in space are many substances such as carbon, lithium, but predominately these clouds are made up of Hydrogen. If we remember bach to the ideal gas law, we will remember that temperature effects pressure. If we cool down a gas such as Hydrogen the gas will shrink together. In other words the Hydrogen atoms will become closer together. If some how a natural process could get the gas to shrink then we might see a star start to form. Those particles of carbon, etc. are the dust that resides inside of the clouds of gas. These particles could theoretically, take heat away from the Hydrogen gas and cause the gas to contract together. This gas will not contract with out something causing it to contract, so secular astronomers sometimes look to this dust as the mechanism.
One huge problem that this theory faces is that there is no mechanism to provide the dust particles with out the presence of at least two generations of stars. According to their own theories this dust carbon etc. must have been formed in the Atmosphere of a star know as a “Red Giant” and then blown back into space. The alleged Big Bang is said to have only produced Hydrogen and Helium, two of the lightest gases and not heavier elements. So we can see that none of the heavier dust particles required to take away heat from gas clouds were present in the beginning and ironically need a very large type of star to make this dust.
What we are looking for is the origin of stars which this mechanism cannot provide the answer. But the Bible does. On day 4 of creation week God created two great lights the sun and the moon, and it says that “He created the stars also.”

Super Novae
Stars in space sometime explode violently. These explosions are called Super Nova. They are extremely spectacular if one is ever blessed enough to see one. Several throughout history have been seen and are noted in astronomical journals. We can see the remnants today in what is called the Crab Nebula and another called Monocerotus.
In this theory of star formation essentially a star explodes near a gas cloud. Massive amounts of energy is released in a short period of time. The explosive compression would hit the side of a gas cloud and compress the hydrogen together, perhaps close enough to start the process of Hydrogen fusion. This theory is plausible in its concept, but still does not answer the question of where the first stars that are now exploding came from.
Again what we are looking for is the origin of stars which this theory does not provide because it requires a star to explode to make another star. But the bible says in Psalms 8:3 “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,”

By no means do scientist fully understand the complex mechanisms of the universe. Even the information about our sun can change as time goes on and more technology is employed. But we should not be afraid of knowledge because God created all things and the evidence will show it. It takes investigation to find the answers and this investigation is what real scientists do.