33 Cool Facts about the Sun
Published by MaxBro on Tagged Features
Burning like an eternal hearth in endless space, revered as a god for millennia, and studied for centuries by inquisitive scientists, the sun has magnetically drawn our fascination since the dawn of man. Its power has both helped wrought life on our planet, as well as endangered our fragile ecosystem throughout earth’s tumultuous history. Even at billions of years old, merely middle-aged in solar terms, the sun continues to churn out enormous sums of heat by fusing massive amounts of hydrogen into helium.
Eventually the sun’s power will run out, and mankind will one day be forced to seek a new power source. But that time is billions of years away, and the sun still has so many new things to teach us. Here are 33 cool facts about the heart of our solar system:
1. Aristotle, for all his insightful philosophical prowess, incorrectly determined that the sun circled the earth. This geocentric outlook of the solar system survived until the Renaissance when Copernicus, despite heavy persecution from the Roman Catholic clergy, prevailed with his theory that the earth actually revolved around the sun.
2. The sun contains nearly 99.9 percent of all matter in our solar system. It could easily fit up to a million earths with plenty of space to spare. Despite its size, our sun is actually on the smaller side in comparison to other stars. Most stars are anywhere between 0.1 and 10 times the mass of our sun.
3. We see the sun as alive and bursting with energy. Yet in the beginning it formed with the use of old matter from a dead star. Many scientists theorize that the sun formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago due to shock waves from a supernova explosion that gathered cosmic dust and gas into a dense core. As gravity began to accelerate within that ball of matter, the internal pressure and heat increased until at about 11 million degrees Kelvin thermonuclear fusion began to occur. Space, it would seem, has its own recycling program.
4. When the sun converts hydrogen into helium, it generates sub-atomic particles called neutrinos as a byproduct. To give you an idea of how much energy the sun generates, 70 billion neutrinos pass through each square centimeter of the earth every second.
5. In addition to emitting an enormous sum of neutrinos, every second the sun also converts 700 million tons of hydrogen gas into 695 million tons of helium gas. The missing 5 million tons of matter escape the sun as pure energy.
6. Solar flares can release as much energy as a 10 billion megaton bomb, and can project farther than 250,000 miles from the surface of the sun. These flares are also known to cause problems here on earth with communications and power systems.
7. Just as the earth and the rest of the planets orbit the sun, our star is also orbiting around the center of the Milky Way galaxy at the rate of approximately 251 km per second. At this speed, it takes our solar system 1400 years to travel one light year, and will take 225-250 million years to orbit the galaxy.
8. The sun’s eventual death may be five billion years away, but it still remains a threat to earth sooner than you’d think. It’s estimated that in addition to its rising surface temperature, the sun’s luminosity increases by 10% every billion years. This means that in roughly a billion years the earth’s surface will become too hot to sustain terrestrial life.
9. The energy created at the sun’s core can take up to a million years to reach the surface. Think about that. That means every sunrise you’ve ever seen could have been generated by ancient light that initially formed hundreds of thousands of years before modern humans walked the earth.
10. The sun has been worshipped as a god for thousands of years by many different cultures. Ancient Egyptians worshipped Ra as their sun-god and creator. Often portrayed with a falcon head, Ra was believed to have two children who became the atmosphere and the clouds. They also had children themselves which later became the earth and the stars. Humans eventually formed out of Ra’s tears.
11. The sun’s core can reach temperatures as high as 10 to 22.5 million degrees F. The surface is quite a bit cooler, however, at around 10,000 degrees F. Sunspots are often the coolest spots, with temperatures as low as 7,300 degrees F. While it might make sense to think that the further away from the sun you get the cooler it gets, in reality the outer atmosphere of the sun can be anywhere between 1.5 to 2 million degrees F.
12. The ancient Greeks called the sun “Helios,” and this is where we get the term “helium.”
13. Everyone knows light takes about 8 minutes to travel from the sun to the earth. Sunlight also takes 3.22 minutes to reach Mercury, 6.01 minutes to reach Venus, and 4.16 hours to reach Neptune.
14. Astronomers measure the brightness of objects in space using a logarithmic measurement scale known as magnitude. Venus can be as bright as -3.7. The full moon can be as bright as -12.6. The sun is -26.73, which makes it 450,000 times brighter than the moon.
15. For thousands of years in the West the sun was believed to be perfect ball of fire. However, it was Galileo that discovered in 1610 that the sun actually had blemishes (which we call sunspots) moving across its surface. He also correctly determined that they were actually on the surface of the sun instead of small planets orbiting between our planet and the star.
16. Sun spot activity has been recorded for at least over three hundreds years. Each sunspot cycle can last between 9 and 14 years at a time, but usually averages 11 years.
17. Even though astronomers have named thousands of different stars in our galaxy, our own sun is actually nameless. The North Star is known as Polaris and the brightest star visible from earth is Sirius. But our star has no special name or label, and is simply called “the sun.”
18. For a galactic outsider, trying to find our sun would be like trying to find a particular grain of sand on a beach. But if we were to give out directions to an alien species, we’d say that we’re located in the inner rim of the Orion Arm, which is thought to be an extension of the Sagittarius Arm of our galaxy. This places us roughly 26,000 light years from the center of the galaxy. Hopefully, any alien visitors will have a super advanced GPS system.
19. While our sun may not be the biggest star in our galaxy, it is actually brighter than 85% of the stars in the Milky Way.
20. If you look very carefully just after the sun sets, you might catch a glimpse of the “green flash.” While red light travels in a straight line through the natural prism of earth’s atmosphere, green light is curved such that it can be seen briefly as it bends around the curvature of the earth.
21. What is the sun made of? Well, if we were able to separate its elements into a giant set of beakers, we would discover that our fiery neighbor is composed of 74% hydrogen and 24% helium. About a full 1% is actually oxygen, and the remaining 1% or so represent trace amounts of iron, nickel, silicon, sulfur, magnesium, carbon, neon, calcium, and chromium.
22. The gravity of the sun at the surface is about 22 times the gravity of the earth. This would mean that a 160 lb. man on earth would feel 4,480 lbs. on the sun. So even if you could somehow survive the heat of the sun, the pressure due to gravity would literally pull you to pieces into the core.
23. The sun’s gravity is so strong that astronomers believe that in addition to holding Pluto in orbit at a distance of 5.9 million km, the sun’s gravity could also extend as far as 2 light years away.
24. Today we take for granted that the amazing physical properties of the sun. However, when the Greek philosopher Anaxagoras theorized that the sun was a fiery rock and not a god, he got sentenced to death for impiety by the Athenian court.
25. The sun is classified as a G2V star, which means that its surface temperature is roughly 5,500 degree F. This intense heat gives the sun a white color, even though on earth our atmosphere makes the sun appear yellow.
26. Because of the subtractive effect, the sun can also appear other colors beside yellow depending on its position of earth relative to the star. When the sun is low in the sky, for instance, light scatters so that it appears orange or even red.
27. In addition to providing mood lighting for romantic evenings, the sun’s rays also have antiseptic qualities. Ultraviolet light can sanitize tools and water, and is well known to aid in the production of Vitamin D.
28. Throughout human evolution, the sun has been the largest player in determining overall skin color by influencing pigmentation changes over time.
29. While the sun may be one of the brightest stars in our galaxy, it lacks sufficient mass to explode in a supernova when it reaches its inevitable death. Instead, it will expand like a balloon as a red giant while its core contracts and becomes even hotter.
30. In a sense, stars can act as ON/OFF switches in regards the formation of life on planets. Scientists estimate that because the sun was much fainter in the past, life was not capable of forming on land. It was only until the sun hit that sweet spot of brightness that our biological ancestors were able to make that first trek on land millions of years ago.
31. Because the sun exists in a plasmatic state, it rotates faster at its equator than at its poles. The equator makes a full rotation every 25 days, while the poles rotate at around 35 days.
32. Because the sun rotates at different speeds at its poles than at its equator, this causes its magnetic field lines to overlap and twist over time. This spaghettification of magnetism is what causes sun spots and the chaotic solar ejections of plasma.
33. The Greek philosopher Eratosthenes may have been the first person to accurately determine the distance of the earth from the sun. In the 3rd century BCE he calculated that our star was around 149 million KM from our planet. That same number still holds true today.
Bonus: The ancient Egyptians used a simple circle with a dot in the center to represent their fiery deity Ra in hieroglyphics. That same solar symbol is still used today to represent the sun in astronomy and astrology.
Resources
Solar Views - If you’re into the math stats behind the sun and tons of other cool images, this page is for you.
Universe Today - Check out this page for a plethora of cool articles about the sun.
Wikipedia - Pauly Shore isn’t the only star to have his very own Wikipedia page.
Windows to the Universe - All kinds of neat pics, vids and animated gifs on this kid-friendly reference page.
On Disproving a Negative
Published by MaxBro on Tagged Atheism
Contrary to ignorant opinion, yes you CAN prove a negative. It all depends on the scale of the claim. I can prove that I’ve never suffered full body third degree burns because if I had I would have the obvious tell-tale scarring. I can prove Joe Pesci’s never landed on the moon.
There are all kinds of negative claims that can be proven because the evidence for them is stark and overwhelming. It’s easy to recognize the unfortunate victim of a full-body third degree burn. There have only been a handful of men who’ve visited the moon, and so determining who hasn’t is a relatively simple task involving process of elimination.
However, there are more complicated claims that cannot be proven one way or the other. I can’t prove that at no point in time has, say, a unicorn ever existed. Even though there is no known evidence for their existence, it’s impossible for any one to prove they’ve never been around because no one can fully know for certain. No person has omniscient knowledge of the universe.
When it comes to the god claim, theists often like to respond to the demand for evidence by saying you can’t prove god doesn’t exist, and so therefore he exists. However, this is shifting the burden of proof from themselves onto others. Even though no one can rightfully claim to know for certain that no gods have ever existed, it’s okay to say none ever have for the sake of practical knowledge because thus far there is no evidence for their existence.
Further, if someone makes a claim, and their only evidence for that claim is that you can’t disprove it, that person has essentially only succeeded in blocking any kind of meaningful, rational discourse. Evidence of a claim must manifest in a useful fashion in order for that claim to be taken seriously. This is especially true for extraordinary claims of large scale like the god claim. After all, when you claim god exists your work doesn’t end there. You must show that not only does a god exist, but that your particular god exists. You must define what it is you mean by “god.” Failure to articulate these things is no different than saying “X” exists, or that some kind of “unquantifiable abstract” exists.
To think of this in another way, let’s imagine a situation where evidence for something is of paramount importance. Let’s say you’re in a courtroom and you are being accused of murdering your best friend. The prosecutor has the burden of proof. He must prove you committed the crime by showing evidence that you did it. But imagine if instead of displaying useful items like a bloody weapon stained with your fingerprints, surveillance videotape of you killing your friend, or the word of several eyewitnesses, the prosecutor merely says that you must have committed the murder simply because you can’t prove that you didn’t do it. Perhaps you were sitting home alone the night of the murder and there is no way you can prove 100% that you weren’t doing anything but watching TV all night and surfing the web. If that was the sum of the prosecutor’s argument for your conviction, he’d probably be laughed out of the courtroom. And you’d almost certainly walk away free.
As absurd as such a situation as that would be, that is basically what theists are doing when they attempt to shift the burden of proof onto the atheist when it comes to “proving” the existence of God. Instead of offering real, concrete reasons for their beliefs, all they can do is perform a reversal to try to make the other person look foolish. It’s no wonder atheists don’t take the god claim seriously. Theists don’t seem to take it seriously themselves.
The Insidious Double Meaning of “With God All Things Are Possible.”
Published by MaxBro on Tagged Atheism
When I was a Christian, I interpreted Mathew 19:26 to mean that God is all-powerful and we should lay our troubles at his feet. The verse is also kind of a corollary to Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”
Those two verses sure evoke a nice feeling, don’t they? Isn’t it nice to think that some all-powerful deity is looking out for you, and that whenever you need help you need only to ask—it’s like having access to your own divine customer service, only without the corny elevator music when you’re put on hold. Of course, this deity doesn’t always help when you ask. Sometimes He likes to test your faith through fire, or make you exercise your patience by withholding whatever it is you need. Sometimes He just doesn’t see fit to save your family member from cancer, stop a tsunami from wiping out a crowd of surfers in Indonesia, or prevent an African teenager from getting shot in the back of the head by a guerilla fighter in the Congo. But that’s okay. It’s all part of His divine plan, who are we to question it, right?
However, when you strip away the emotional aspect of Mathew 19:26 you begin to realize the verse unintentionally allows for all manner of insidious interpretation. Let me explain. In literature there’s this device known as the deus ex machina. It’s a well-known phrase, and most likely you learned about it in your high school English class. It literally means “God out of the machine.” It’s basically when the writer takes an easy out to the end of the story by inserting some utterly implausible situation. For example, Batman falls off a building without his utility belt, but as luck would have it he lands on top of a canopy right before he hits the ground. Ta-da! The hero lives to fight another day.
Similarly, Mathew 19:26 is the ultimate excuse for the believer. Whenever something is unexplainable, unknowable, or uncertain, Goddidit! We see this countless times whenever a rational explanation cannot fully explain something. And even when there is a rational explanation many believers still can’t resist the urge to throw God into the equation anyway.
Humans are the ones responsible for human actions. What you do is based on decisions you make. Yet, when you introduce the idea of God, then responsibility is no longer solely your own. Some things will be your fault, other things will be God’s will that you have no control over. However, since there is no reliable means by which to determine one or the other, and because the assertion is entirely based on one’s own interpretation of reality, it’s easy to see how this worldview can lend itself to all kinds of contradictory and irrational misinterpretations of events:
- Whenever scientists come out with new data concerning the origins of the universe, the earth, or life, God is still responsible no matter what.
- Whenever something unfortunate happens but one lucky person survives, God’s looking out for that person.
- Whenever something terrible happens and there are no survivors, God also willed that to happen.
- When a woman bears ten children, it isn’t because she and her husband decided to have that many and she is simply biologically capable, it’s because God opens and closes the womb.
- Get laid off recently? God’s just testing you. Find a twenty on the sidewalk. Yep, God wanted you to have that.
Given these circumstances, Mathew 19:26 reads both as an inspirational message about the power of God, but also as a subtle self-refuting assertion and non-answer. If we can’t tell whether something we do is our own will or God playing with our puppet strings, then how can we claim responsibility for anything we do? If we cannot draw a distinct line between the two, then the assertion essentially becomes worthless and even dangerous to maintain. A couple with their first child on the way might declare it God’s blessing amid tears of joy. But what about the psychopath who kills his family because he believed God told him to? Is there any way we can be certain God was involved or not in either events? Supposing God really did tell the psychopath to kill his family. You say God would do no such thing? Do you dare claim to know the mind of God? How could anyone claim to know with certainty the intentions of a being who Himself declares “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” (Isaiah 55:8).
The excuses one can generate with Mathew 19:26 are limited only by human imagination and ignorance. If with God all things are truly possible, then any particular event becomes essentially a Rorschach test to the individual. You get into a car wreck, God’s telling you something. I might point out the simple fact that you blew through a stop sign before t-boning that sedan.
In dramatic literature, the employment of the deus ex machina is often derided as a sign of limited imagination and weak writing. Its usage in the real world should be held in further contempt.
Why I Am An Atheist
Published by MaxBro on Tagged AtheismI am an atheist because I care intensely about whether or not my beliefs are true. Truth is best discerned through thorough research, investigation, independent verification of discoveries, and empirical evidence. Those are the means and methods we use, in addition to our senses, to determine the nature of reality. Truth manifests itself simply, obviously, and powerfully without the need for suspension of disbelief or subjective interpretation. Truth withstands scrutiny, holds up under examination, and above all is demonstrable.
Faith relies on emotion, feeling, anecdotal stories and myths, unsupported claims generally made by single individuals with questionable motives, and contradictory and oftentimes morally dubious holy books constructed by people from ancient times saddled with wayward beliefs and superstitions. Faith requires the believer to abandon the tools that have allowed humanity to prosper throughout millennia in our long journey of development—reason, logic and the scientific method.
Reason is our only defense against a generally cruel, inhospitable world. It is what opens our minds to the dangers and opportunities that exist all around us. Faith is that which closes our minds and leaves us vulnerable to all manner of harm through ignorance in favor of fairy tales that serve only to tantalize the imagination.
In essence, reason, the prime means we use to determine truth, offers life, while faith offers death. Be it sometimes unpleasant, neutral to my existence, yet always mysterious, I choose to observe reality, and by extension, life.
