Solar Weather It’s Sooooo-lar Amazing!

Weather…in space! Space weather is the concept of changing environmental conditions in near-Earth space.

Using Eclipses to Study Solar Wind Solar wind is a flow of particles out of the sun’s corona (outer layer). The particles may be spread out, but they are SUPER fast. Some that escape from the Sun’s poles travel as fast as 800 kilometers per second!

Is Solar Wind Really Wind? Not one that you could feel. The flow of particles is much less dense than the wind on earth, so you cant feel it even if you stood in it’s path.

What Protects Us From Solar Wind? Earth’s magnetic field shield’s the planet as it moved throughout the solar system.

Sunspots In ancient China around 28 B.C.E, astronomers recorded their observations of what looked like small changing, dark patches on the surface of the Sun. Galileo was one of the first to view sun spots through a telescope. But, what are sunspots? And what do they tell us about the Sun and “weather” in space?

Today’s Inquiries: Inquiry 8.2 on page 108 in your textbook. Write your Sunspot Data on page 8 in your Lab notebooks. Inquiry 8.3 on page in your textbook. Write your Graphs and Answers on page 9 in your Lab notebooks. Group A: Group B: Group C: Group D: Group E: Group F: Group G: Group H: Group I: When Finished with both Inquiry Activities, read page 70 in your textbooks then see Ms. Houston afterwards for further instruction.

Our Sun’s Energy It Just Keeps Going, and Going, and Going….

Our Sun’s Energy Our Sun is only one among billions of others in the universe, but why is it the one that makes our life on earth possible?

Solar Energy: Where Does it Come From? It starts with the Sun’s massive size: The sun is approximately 300,000 times greater than Earth’s.

Under A Lot of Pressure The more mass any object has, the greater the pressure at it’s center due to the force of gravity. The Sun’s mass is composed of hydrogen gas atoms and when gas is compressed it becomes hot.

Solar Energy Solar energy is energy from the sun. This energy is the source of most of the earth on Earth’s Land, in it’s oceans, and in its atmosphere. The way it makes it to earth is through a process known as radiation.

Radiation Some solar radiation is visible light, but not all solar radiation can be detected by the human eye.

Our Atmosphere: The Shield Earth’s atmosphere protects our planet by keeping us from receiving too much solar energy. Too much energy (like ultraviolet radiation) would be harmful to life on earth. What would happen to us if we were closer or further away from the sun?