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A star is the (only) object that radiates light, i.e. does not reflect it but generates it itself, and therefore the star determines everything. Because without Light there is no Life, although of course even more is needed for that. We call our star the sun and everything that revolves around it belongs to that galaxy. Our system is also called the solar system and all other objects in it only reflect light (from the sun).
Sun produces that enormous amount of energy with cold nuclear fusion. Explaining this is not within the scope of this article since it is "rather" to complex.
We now know that billions of galaxies exist. There seem to be (..) even more suns in the universe than grains of sand in our Sahara. It seems as if there are always planets around every star, but it is not known whether this is true.
Voyagers 1 and 2, among others, have taught us a lot about "deep space". They were launched in 1977 and have been around ever since (still!) on the road at about 15,000 kilometers per second!!! You can find an (English) article about it, which starts with Copernicus and the invention of binoculars here 🖱️
If the Earth were the size of a tennis ball, the sun would be 3.8 meters in diameter and weigh 3 tons. That's about the same as 2 large cars. At this scale, the Earth would orbit the sun at a distance of 403 meters.
It takes 18 milliseconds for a ray of light to travel from New York to London (but why is that not possible (for several (4) reasons)?). And it takes eight minutes for light from our sun to reach our planet.
For a ray of light from the next star past our sun, it takes 4.3 years for that ray from that star reaches our earth. That star is therefore 282,510 times further away from us than our own sun.
Light travels at a speed of 300,000 kilometers per second. So per second, and electricity is also that fast. If you wrap the cord of a lamp all the way around the earth 7.5 times, it takes 1 second before the lamp turns on after you turn on the switch.
Click here 🖱️ for a beautiful photo of our moon in the beautiful sunlight.
The sun weighs 2 trillion trillion trillion tons, making it about 333,420 times heavier than the Earth. There are 9 planets in our solar system that revolve around our sun and most of them are much larger than the Earth.
Yet all 9 planets together have only 1.5% of all the mass in our solar system. The sun has no less than 98.5% of all mass.
If you could heat a pin to the same temperature as the core of the sun the heat would cause everything within a radius of 100 kilometers to go up in flames. That glowing pin would burn half the country from, for example, Amersfoort!
All the coal, gas, wood and oil on our earth could only keep the sun burning for a few days. Because the sun radiates so much energy into space, it loses weight every second which is equal to that of a million elephants. And to think that no solid mass is radiated!
Temperate climates are the most popular. Although only seven percent of the world has a temperate climate almost half of the world's population lives in these areas. Quitto, Ecuador is said to have the most pleasant climate in the world. It is called the "Land of Eternal Spring". The temperature is rarely lower than 8 degrees Celsius and does not exceed 22 degrees Celsius during the day.
The worst climate in the world is Yakutsk in Russia. In winter the temperature drops to -64 degrees Celsius. In summer it can reach 39 degrees Celsius.
The bleakest places on earth are the two poles. At the South Pole the sun does not shine for 182 days a year. Things are slightly better at the North Pole: the sun only doesn't shine 176 days a year.
Small differences in altitude can cause a big difference in weather. Security guards atop New York's tall Empire State Building were seen throwing snowballs on November 3, 1958 while it was raining 381 meters below, on the street.
The term 'weather forecast' was first used in England in 1850 by the meteorologist Admiral Robert Fitzroy.
In 1895, weather reporting by postcard was introduced in America.
The weather forecast was stamped on a postcard and sent to about 90,000 subscribers.
This weather service was successful for 30 years, until radio and telephone became widespread.
Sunset at Almonaster, Spain
So much for "our" sun. No one really knows how many suns there are, a few are "discovered" just about every day. But you get an impression from this photo:
Each Point (...) in this photo is a Star and so a solar system. Tip: also look left, above, right, below and back. Euhhh.... Enneuuhhh2: why are the "top" points out of focus?
An animation of a tiny piece of universe, seen from Earth. Everything revolves around everything. This is really happening up there and you can see it (kind of). when you process 143 snapshots into an animation. So every Point is a star...
In this animation you can see better how everything moves, at least relative to us. They are the same 143 photos but rotated 180 degrees. This incremental animation was then created. So here each line is a star.
The sun never "sets", it is man who sets. Under the wool. Then down...