The Sun — Our Nearest Star
Captured with: Seestar S50 Smart Telescope (solar filter engaged)
Distance: 149.6 million kilometers (1 Astronomical Unit)
Type: G2V Main Sequence Star
Diameter: 1.39 million kilometers
The Sun is a vast sphere of superheated plasma, a nuclear furnace that fuses hydrogen into helium at its core, releasing an immense flow of energy that sustains all life on Earth. Though it appears serene from afar, its surface is a landscape of turbulence and magnetism — constantly shifting and alive.
Through the Seestar S50, the Sun’s photosphere reveals sunspots, dark patches formed where intense magnetic fields rise from deep within, suppressing convection and cooling the surface slightly. These regions are still hotter than any flame on Earth — around 3,800°C, compared to the surrounding 5,500°C — yet appear dark by contrast.
Sunspots often appear in pairs or clusters, connected by invisible magnetic field lines. They mark regions of heightened activity that can spawn solar flares and coronal mass ejections, immense eruptions that hurl charged particles into space. When these interact with Earth’s magnetic field, they ignite the aurora borealis and australis — shimmering curtains of green and red light in our polar skies.
The number of sunspots varies over an 11-year solar cycle, rising to a chaotic maximum before fading to a quiet minimum. This rhythmic pulse reflects the deep magnetic heartbeat of our star.
To study the Sun is to witness a star in motion — a luminous engine of creation, both steady and volatile, forever shaping the environment of every planet that orbits it.