Star of the Day

OUR earth is not very big when compared to that star of the day​—our sun. Why, a million earths could be put into one sun. And yet our sun, as a star, is not really big. It is like a dwarf. Some stars are hundreds of times as large as our sun! The bright red star, Betelgeuse, has a diameter about 400 times as great as that of our star of the day.

Nor is the sun by any means the brightest star. The star S. Doradus is about 500,000 times as bright as the sun! But for our earth the sun is just right.

Our sun looks so much brighter and bigger than other stars simply because it is the nearest one to the earth. The sun’s average distance from the earth is nearly 93,000,000 miles (149,637,000 kilometers). Light reaches the earth from the sun in about 8-1/3 minutes. Since the sun is the center of the solar system, the earth and all its sister planets move in great circles around it.

Moving at a tremendous speed, the sun travels through space at about twelve miles a second. Yet there is no danger that our sun will travel too close to another star.

When we consider, then, that our sun is but one among thousands of millions of suns, incandescent balls of fire whirling through space, it should move us to think of the One who has them all in his power and calls them all by name. (Ps. 147:4) Truly the sun is a gift from “the Father of the celestial lights,” who makes it shine upon all alike, the wicked and the good. (Jas. 1:17; Matt. 5:45) Certainly our star of the day can be said to praise its magnificent Creator.​—Ps. 148:3.

A Giant Nuclear Reactor

Our sun is a big, bright ball composed of hot gases. The most common elements of which our sun is made are hydrogen, helium, calcium, sodium, magnesium and iron. But from where does the sun get its heat? Actually our star of the day is a kind of atomic furnace. The process is complicated indeed, but, basically, hydrogen gas in the sun is transformed into helium. Four atoms of hydrogen unite to make one atom of helium, and in the process much energy is released.

The surface temperature of the sun is said to be about 11,000° F. (6,000° C.). But because of its great distance from the earth only about one two-billionth (one two-thousand-millionth) of its radiant energy reaches the earth. Yet this amount is fully sufficient to provide ideal climatic conditions that make vegetable and animal life on earth possible.

If just a fraction of the sun’s fantastic amount of energy could be harnessed, man would solve his major problems with regard to heating and transport. If man knew how to use it effectively, it has been said that the sun could provide one and a half horsepower of energy for every square yard of the earth on which the sun shines.

Solar Prominences and Sun Storms

From time to time big flames shoot out from the sun; these are called solar prominences. These big geysers or fire fountains burst out and die down again, scattering fire in their path. They may shoot out over 200,000 miles from the sun itself.

Then there are those dark specks or blotches on the surface of the sun called sunspots. They are really sun storms of whirling masses of electrified gases. Apparently because they are lower in temperature than the rest of the solar atmosphere, sunspots look like dull patches in a coal fire.