SOHO Pick of the Week: Cutting to the Sun’s Core
Borrowing from techniques like those used to “see” what is inside the
Earth, scientists have been able to determine a great deal about the
internal structure of the Sun. The three basic layers are:
- the core at the Sun’s center, densest part of the Sun,
where the nuclear fusion occurs; - the extensive radiation zone, through which the heat and
light from the core slowly, over tens of thousands of years are
radiated out to the convection zone, and - the convection zone, about the upper third of the Sun in
which the energy is transported by overturning motions, like the
bubbling of a pot of boiling water, up to the surface and back.
This illustration of the internal structure has been superimposed on
an EIT 304Å image from January 8, 2002.
