The Sun's Force Field

We are bounded in a nutshell of Infinite Space: Reading #5: The Sun's Force Field

From the reading of chapter 3.10 -3.12 of Astrophysics in a Nutshell, we begin to understand the different processes which lead up to the nuclear reactions which create the energy necessary to maintain the Sun. Furthermore, these equations lead us to understand the form and structure of the Sun. At the center of the Sun, we find the reactive core, the source of the Sun’s energy and the place where all the Nuclear Fusion takes place in order to power the Sun. This process of Nuclear Fusion works off quantum concepts like quantum tunneling, energy levels, and fundamental baryonic particles like neutrinos to combine Hydrogen atoms into other isotopes of the Hydrogen, to then be successfully combined into Helium atoms. This exchange and release of energy is what provides the Sun with energy, and begins radiating it outwards into the Radiative zone, followed by the outer Convection Zone, and then reaching the Photosphere were the photons are finally emitted after tens of thousands of years of traveling through the dense gases of the Sun. Above the initial atmosphere of the Photosphere, there exists the Chromosphere where the photons begin to travel outwards into space, and heat up this region more so than the Photosphere itself. Finally the Corona is the upper portion of the Atmosphere where the atmosphere is hottest and extends outward for several million miles.

However, the reach of the Sun’s electromagnetic influence does not end at the photons emitted to reach the objects rotating around it, rather the Sun does much more than we usually remember. Here we refer to the Heliosphere, the pressure exerted by the Sun and the Solar Wind into the reaches of the Solar System, going beyond the Kuiper belt to act as a protective sphere from the Interstellar Medium fraught with dangers and damaging sources of energy. The Heliosphere is continuously maintained by the outward pressure exerted by the Sun’s emissions and counteracted by the Interstellar Medium’s pressure as the Solar system moves across the Milky Way.

Thus far, we have had only one man-made object pass the Heliosphere: the Voyager 2 probe. Carrying on it the evidence of our existence and capabilities in the form of a phonograph disk, the Voyager missions were our first glimpses into the farthest parts of the Solar System, as well as the origin of the farthest image we have of the Earth:   

References: 

https://writescience.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/pale-blue-dot-wallpaper-1900x1200.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d4/Sun_poster.svg/4000px-Sun_poster.svg.png

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/NewHeliopause_558121.jpg

Carroll, B. W., & Ostlie, D. A. (2007). An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics. San Francisco: Pearson: Addison Wesley.

Maoz, D. (2007). Astrophysics in a Nutshell. Princeton: Princeton University Press.