HISTORY OF THE SUN

ORIGIN OF THE SUN:

    At first, there was nothing. Well not exactly. Billions of years 
ago, there was no sun, no Earth, no solar system. There was just a 
huge cloud of dust and gas in the galaxy. About 5 billion years ago, 
there were enough hydrogen atoms in the cloud for gravity to pull 
them together. As the cloud shrank, it became denser. The atoms were 
soon moving so fast that this cloud began to glow. When the cloud was 
hot enough, electrons and protons of the hydrogen atoms flew apart. 
When two protons collided, they would fuse, or stick to one another, 
until atoms of helium formed. This process is called fusion. Energy 
is produced in the form of light and heat through fusion as well. This 
energy made the cloud to enlarge, while the gravity was pulling to 
hold the atoms together. Finally, the forces balanced and the cloud 
settled in to what is now known as our sun.
    With the sun at the center, our solar system formed. Over millions 
of years, the leftover gas and dust formed the nine planets, and a 
variety of moons, asteroids, comets, and meteors. Due to fusion, the 
sun is the only object in the solar system that gives off light and 
heat of its own. The planets and the moon only reflect the light of 
the sun.
    One question that may arise is, where does fusion take place? The 
answer is in the core, or the center, of the sun. Scientists believe 
that the core is about the size of Jupiter. It is very hot and very 
dense. The temperature can reach highs of 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. 
The core’s gas is about one hundred times denser than most metals. 
Since the core is this dense, it is hard for rays to leave. When gamma 
rays are released by fusion, they continue to collide with other atoms. 
Due to this, it takes the gamma rays almost thirty thousand years to 
reach the sun's surface! This means that the light that we receive on 
Earth was created thousands of years ago.