Space Weather

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  • 
    ID: 11537 Produced Video

    Journey Of Light

    May 22nd, 2014
    (updated May 3rd, 2023)

    The light that illuminates our planet is made deep inside the sun and takes some 40,000 years to travel through the sun’s layers. Particles of light form from atoms undergoing nuclear fusion in the sun’s innermost layer known as the core. The light then flows through the sun’s interior for millennia, slowly bubbling up like water in a boiling pot. It eventually bursts past the sun’s surface, called the photosphere, and rises into the solar atmosphere. Once in the atmosphere—made up of the chromosphere and corona—the light streams out through the solar system. Watch the video to see how light travels from the sun's interior to the surface. ||

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  • 
    ID: 11084 Produced Video

    Origin Of Light

    Oct. 4th, 2012
    (updated May 3rd, 2023)

    An elegant interaction powers the sun, producing the light and energy that makes life possible. That interaction is called fusion, and it naturally occurs when two atoms are heated and compressed so intensely that their nuclei merge into a new element. This process often leads to the creation of a photon, the particles of light that are released from the sun. However, before exiting our star, each photon must first undergo a long journey. Over the course of 40,000 years it will be absorbed by other atoms and emitted repeatedly until reaching the sun's surface. Once there, the photons stream out, illuminating Earth, the solar system and beyond. The number released from the surface every second is so vast that it is more than a billion billion times greater than the number of grains of sand on our planet. Watch the animation to see how atoms deep inside the sun's core melt together and generate light. ||

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