Jump to: Intro, The Sun and Us, Layers of the Sun, Page 2: Sunspots, Prominences, Solar Flares, Page 3: Effects of Solar Activity, For Mature Audience Only...

EFFECTS OF SOLAR ACTIVITY:
        Solar activity affects our life on Earth. Solar flares send out many atomic particles in to space, which reach Earth within two days. The Earth is surrounded by our own magnetic field that mostly deflects the incoming electrons. Some of these electrons get trapped inside the magnetic field and instead, circle the Earth. Upon reaching the poles, where the field is the weakest, the electrons sink in to the atmosphere and collide with nitrogen or oxygen atoms. The electrical current that is created, makes a curtain of red and green light, also called an aurora. It may be aurora borealis, northern lights, or aurora australis, southern lights, depending on which pole. Sometimes it can be seen from as far as Texas or Florida.
        A powerful flare can hit Earth with many particles. This is known as solar storms. They can knock out electric power stations, interrupt radio signals, and cause compasses to spin. In 1972, a solar flare caused a 230,000 volt transformer in British Columbia to explode. In 1989, parts of Montreal were blacked out for nine hours. There were also reports of garage doors opening and closing on their own.
Courtesy of EIT/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

The SOHO Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope takes pictures of the sun at different bands. This was done at the Fe IX, X 171 Å. 		 top..

FOR MATURE AUDIENCE ONLY... DEATH OF THE SUN:
        The sun exists because of fusion. Every second it turns 600 million tons of hydrogen in to helium and energy. Scientists estimate that the sun has enough fuel to last another five billion years. After that, the sun will not have the force of fusion pushing out, making it hard to resist its own gravity pulling in, causing it to collapse. The atoms will fall toward each other, faster and faster, just as when the sun was created. This time, it will be helium fusion, which releases more energy than hydrogen fusion, making the sun hotter and causing it to expand. By this point, the sun would be a very large and red object. It will burn almost one thousand times more brightly. The outer layers will swell even bigger and may sallow up Mercury, Venus and possibly even Earth.
        This new red sun will use its helium fuel within a million years and the outer layers will expand in to space, leaving behind a bare core about the size of Earth. This star, called a white dwarf, will burn blue at 216,032 degrees. It will be very dense and the atoms will be packed so tightly that a cubic inch will weigh over a ton. It will be very bright. Over the next several billion years, the white dwarf will burn out and cool off. That will be the end of the sun. Before that, with the new technology, maybe humans will find a new star that can provide warmth, food and protection for another few billion years. We still have five billion years to make new discoveries and enjoy what our sun has to offer today.

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