Observations 2.6

Yes the Sun is behind the clouds!

That's much better!

 Date: December 8, 2013
Time: 11:00 - 11:35

Observations:
When people hear the word astronomy, they think of nighttime and of millions of stars in the sky. What many fail to realize is that we, our planet and Sun are also part of the millions and billions of stars out there in space. Many people forget that our own Sun is also a star! Today I felt like giving a little credit to our own beautiful Sun. When I first went outside, as you can see in the first picture, the Sun was some what hidden behind the clouds. After shielding my eyes and waiting outside for a few minutes, the Sun was ready for me to take some pictures (I hope pointing my camera at the Sun will not ruin it!).

Our Sun is around 4.6 billion years old (that would be considered the Sun in its middle age). The Sun was made when a Supernova (an explosion or a death from a star many times bigger than our own Sun). The debris from this explosion struck a nearby gas cloud and due to the heat and energy emitted from the explosion, the gas particles and dust began to collide and mix making a huge cloud like formation. Due to its density, the cloud collapsed in itself and the particles began to clump up enough for it to have it's own gravitational force as it began to pull and suck everything towards the center. From all this energy and heat, this center began to produce nuclear fire and began to grow in size. With its gravitational pull, all the debris surrounding it began to circle around the forming sun and like someone throwing pizza dough in a circular motion in the air, the debris fanned out into a plane circling the Sun. Confusing? Here is a picture to clarify it a bit:

So that is how our Sun came to be! Okay other cool stuff about our Sun is that it will die, but don't worry, that won't happen for another 5 billion years because it has not yet used up its chemical fuel.
You see, there are suns and stars that are many times bigger and even smaller than our Sun; however, the smaller the star the longer it lives because it does not use its fuel up as fast as a bigger, hotter star.

People should have more of an appreciation for our own solar system and our Sun because without it there would be no life whatsoever; there would be no peaceful warm or cool and breezy nights gazing up at the billions of other stars that are like our own Sun. It is just amazing to think that our Sun is also one of the billions of stars in space and that maybe somewhere out there, there is another planet with people or other life forms that are looking up at the sky as well and wondering what is really out there.