Glossarbegriffe: Sonne

Description: Die Sonne ist der Stern, der der Erde am nächsten ist. Für die Astronomen ist sie ein Stern des Typs "G2V". Das bedeutet: Die Sonne ist ein Hauptreihenstern mit einer typischen Temperatur ("effektive Temperatur") von 5800 Kelvin. Hauptreihensterne wie die Sonne sind stabil, man sagt auch: Sie befinden sich im hydrostatischen Gleichgewicht. Das bedeutet, dass die durch Wasserstofffusion in ihrem Kern freigesetzte Energie die durch die Schwerkraft nach innen gerichtete Kraft ausgleicht.

Dem menschliche Auge erscheint die Sonne weiß, da sie viel Licht im gesamten sichtbaren Spektrum aussendet. Wenn sie tiefer am Himmel steht, kann die erhöhte atmosphärische Extinktion die Sonne gelb oder orange erscheinen lassen, weshalb sie häufig als gelb dargestellt wird. Es gibt Sterne, die mehr als 1000-mal heller sind als die Sonne, aber auch solche, die 1000-mal lichtschwächer sind. Viel hellere Sterne sind jedoch relativ selten: Die Sonne ist heller (und massereicher) als die meisten (vielleicht 85 %) der Sterne in der Galaxis.

Für Astronomen ist die Sonne interessant, weil sie so nah ist: Deshalb können sie ihre Oberfläche detaillierter auflösen und so die Strukturen und Phänomene auf der Sonne untersuchen. Ein Beispiel ist die Sonnenaktivität, die mit den Magnetfeldern der Sonne zusammenhängt: Sonnenflecken (kühlere Bereiche), Flares (kurze helle Sonneneruptionen) und sogar koronale Massenauswürfe (elektrisch geladene Teilchen, die von der Sonne weggeschleudert werden). Physiker haben auch Elementarteilchen, sogenannte Neutrinos, aus dem Kern der Sonne nachgewiesen: Die Neutrinos sind ein direkter Beweis für Kernfusionsprozesse tief im Inneren der Sonne. Das Element Helium wurde erstmals im Sonnenspektrum nachgewiesen - daher der Name Helium, der von Helios (in der griechischen Mythologie der Sonnengott) stammt.

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Term and definition status: The original definition of this term in English have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher
The translation of this term and its definition is still awaiting approval

The OAE Multilingual Glossary is a project of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) in collaboration with the IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach (OAO). The terms and definitions were chosen, written and reviewed by a collective effort from the OAE, the OAE Centers and Nodes, the OAE National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs) and other volunteers. You can find a full list of credits here. All glossary terms and their definitions are released under a Creative Commons CC BY-4.0 license and should be credited to "IAU OAE".

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The Sun, surrounded by several bright circles and arcs, over a snowy, tree-lined landscape.

Winter Haloes, by Thomas Gigl, Germany

Bildunterschriften: Second place in the 2021 IAU OAE Astrophotography Contest, category Sun/Moon haloes. Captured in Jochberg located in the famous Austrian ski-region of Tirol, this image shows multiple features related to ice halos, which are a more common appearance around the sun, due to its brightness, than the moon. External and internal reflection of sun rays from ice crystal faces and within different types of ice crystals lead to these halo related phenomena. The 22° halo encircles the sun, with two bright spots at the edge called Sundogs, Parhelia or Mock Suns observed to the left and right at the same height as the sun. The horizontal white band called the parhelic circle, named after the sun god Helios, passes through the sun and the Sundogs at the same angular elevation. An Upper tangent arc, a suncave parry arc and a lower tangent arc are also seen touching the top and bottom of the 22° halo. An upside down rainbow like arc or the circumzenithal arc is seen touching the bright supralateral arc, both of which are less frequently observed.
Bildnachweis: Thomas Gigl/IAU OAE

License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Namensnennung 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons

Sunspots

Bildunterschriften: In this image the sun peppered with groups of sunspots over almost nine days between July and August 2012. The sunspots seen in this image have been sources of the solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CME). In this image particulary, the sun is approaching solar maximum in its cycle (solar cycle), where we see many spots forming along the suns' equator. These sunspots and activity are seen in the southern hemisphere, before then most of the activity was on the northern hemisphere.
Bildnachweis: NASA/SDO/HMI credit link

License: PD Public Domain icons

The Sun in ultraviolet appears as a circle. The flare is a bright patch in the upper right 3/4 of the way from the center

Solar flare

Bildunterschriften: This image shows the mid-level solar flare that was observed in March 2022 by the Solar Dynamic Observatory (SDO). The SDO observes the Sun activity, hence it shows the regions on the Sun where there is activity. A solar flare is brief brightening on the sun's surface, this particular flare is an M-class, which means that it is a tenth of the size of the most intense flares, namely the X-flares. Solar flares are barely visible with the naked eye, thus the SDO. The image here, is captured in extreme ultravoilet light that was colourized by red in the SDO, the flare appears in the upper of the solar disk.
Bildnachweis: NASA/SDO credit link

License: PD Public Domain icons

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