SUN - THE SHINING STAR

 


In fact Sun is the living wonder right in front of us. Without His rays, no living species would survive and the Earth would freeze into an ice ball.   Though we made some inroads into knowing other stars in the Solar System, our research on Sun is still at nascent stage.

When I talk about Sun, I am reminiscent of a Sun Temple in my Home State Andhra Pradesh, India, called Arasavalli Sun God temple situated in the coastal district of Srikakulam. It is one of the ancient Sun God temples in the country. The beauty of the temple structure is such that sun rays fall on the feet of the idol twice in the year during March and September in early hours of the day. This ancient temple is believed to have been built in the later half of the 7th century by Devendra Verma, the Ruler of the Kalinga Kingdom.

When it comes to  research on the Sun, it is reported  that   a group of scientists from Hawaii, Braziland California have measured the diameter of the Sun with unprecedented accuracy by using a spacecraft to time the transits of the planet Mercury across the face of the sun in 2003 and 2006. They measured the Sun's radius as 696, 342 km with an uncertainty of only 65 km.

It is believed that this gigantic ball of spinning gases is about 5 billion years old. The base material is Hydrogen (71 %), Helium (26.5%) and other elements (2.5%). The nuclei of hydrogen collide and fuse to form helium and this chain reaction produces energy, which among other things, lights and heats the solar system.

Scientists estimate that the mean distance between Earth and Sun is about 150 million km. If translated into flying hours, it means that a jet aircraft with 1000 km/hr would need more than 17 years of non-stop flying to reach the Sun.

Johannes Kepler, the German astronomer (1571-1630) produced the first accurate model of the solar system.  Inspite of so many advances in science,  deeper aspects of life and origin of Universe are  shrouded with mystery.  We can't be able to connect dots and what Arthur Eddington said to the world 84 years ago in his work : “ The Nature of The Physical World, 1928 (291)” still holds good: Something unknown is doing and we don't know what it is.

So the home point is, we are part of that mystery which we are trying to solve!


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