Key Ideas

Think about the following questions as you watch the video

1. 00:47 Why isn’t it quite accurate to say that our Sun is an “average” star?
2. 01:14 What are some ways to think about the size and mass of the Sun?
3. 02:19 What equation states how mass and energy can be converted into one another?
4. 03:44 What type of heat transfer brings heat from the core to the surface of the Sun?
5. 04:09 What layer of the Sun are we seeing when we see it shining?
6. 04:45 The Sun’s corona is much hotter than the photosphere and extends for millions of kilometers, so why can’t we easily see it without a total eclipse?
7. 04:52 What is the solar wind?
8. 06:00 Some calculations say it takes light millions of years to work its way out of the Sun; other calculations say it takes two hundred thousand years. What is happening to those photons of energy after they are created during nuclear fusion, but before they are released as visible light?
9. 06:41 What is created by the charged particles of plasma moving inside the Sun?
10. 07:19 What causes sunspots?
11. 09:35 What protects the Earth from the Sun’s projected debris, the result of solar flares and coronal mass ejections?
12. 10:09 What caused the 1989 blackout in Montreal?