Date: October 16, 2010

Title: How the Sun Affects Us

Podcaster: Thomas Hofstätter

Organization: http://hidden-space.at.tf (The Hidden Space Project)

Description: Our life is based on the sun. Hence, from the origins to today, it affected people from around the world. In this podcast, my colleague Leon Dombroski from the State of Connecticut in the U.S. will join me to explain how the central of our solar system affects our daily life. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions to the podcast, feel free to write me an email to hidden-space (at) gmx (dot) at or visit me at my website at www.hidden-space.at.tf!

Bio: Born in 1993 near Vienna, Austria, Europe. Upper High School with focus on Computer Science.Interested in extreme small and extreme big, devious and uninvestigated things. My main aim is to bring astronomy to public and to establish secular interest in astronomy, physics and mathematics. Hoster of :: The Hidden Space Project :: at http://hidden-space.at.tf.”

Today’s sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by AAVSO. The American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) is a worldwide, non-profit scientific and educational organization of amateur and professional astronomers interested in stars that change in brightness–variable stars. Founded in October 1911 to coordinate variable star observations made largely by amateur astronomers for Harvard College Observatory, the AAVSO has grown to become the world leader in variable star astronomy, with members in 45 countries and an archive of over 17 million variable star observations. As we begin our 99th year, the AAVSO is proud to support excellent education and outreach initiatives like the 365 Days of Astronomy podcast.

Transcript:

Hello and welcome to this episode of 365 Days of Astronomy. My name is Thomas Hofst‰tter and I am the hoster of :: The Hidden Space Project :: at www.hidden-space.at.tf.

[Leon:] And I’m Leon Dombroski from the state of Connecticut in the United States.

In this episode, we’re going to discuss how the sun affects our daily life from the origins to today. We’re going to talk about mystics and practical use over the time.

[Leon:] We are fortunately that our planet is just the right distance from our sun.Our sun spends and takes life from our planet. That’s the main reason that life was able to develope and do well here. As to now do not know another planet that has such a good relationship.

You can find our suns effect every morning while getting up and looking out of the window. Due to earth’s rotation, there is day and night caused by our sun. Also the four seasons are caused by the rotation around our sun that gravitational bounds all the known planets.

[Leon:] One thing that we hardly notice about our sun are sunspots. Sunspots have a lower temperature than the rest of the sun. When there is a longer period of sunspot activity, the earth is little cooler; when there is no sunspot-activity, the earth is little warmer.

Another effect we notice is caused by solar flares. During such a flare, millions of tons of material are blown off the sun’s atmosphere and often flew into the direction of our earth. Our magnetic field prevents us of damage. If we had no magnetic field, life would not exist because it would have been damaged by solar radiation.

That’s what causes problems in spaceflight because astronauts have no protecting atmosphere around them. Therefore they have to be protected by expensive, high technology shields. Astronauts during the three great spaceflight programs (Mercury, Gemini and Apollo) later admitted that they have seen white “stars” in their eyes. Scientists say that these white dots were caused by solar particles.

[Leon:] Another spectacle triggered by solar flares is the aurora. When solar particles hit the atmosphere, they split the electrons from the atoms making them shine. This event fascinates people from around the world including several photographers.

Also through history, the sun played a huge role in daily life. Although most people do not even recognize the huge affects, life would not even exist if the sun were not here. Firstly, it is the central star of our solar system. Therefore its gravitational bound holds the planets in their orbit and avoids them from flying away into the wide area of the Milky Way.

[Leon:] Secondly, the sun provides a solar system with energy. Every second, huge amounts of energy are changed into Hydrogen by nuclear reactions. In relation to the other stars in the Milky Way, our sun is larger than most other stars. It’s lighter than 75% of the stars in the Milky Way. Although the energy you can obtain decraises with the square of the distance to the object, the energy is sufficient to provide life on earth.

Earth is lucky to be in the so-called habitable zone. That’s where there is enough energy, light and heat to provide life, but it’s not too far away that it would get too cold. The habitable zone is a ring around every star. If the star’s hotter, it is farther away and vice versa. Venus is near the inner edge of the habitable zone; Mars is to far away.

[Leon:] We are very fortunately that the relationship between the sun and the earth is the way it is. Otherway, life would never had developed as it is. And earth would have looked like Mars or Venus. Both are not able to support life as we know it. The sun supports our life directly and indirectly; and without it, we would die. As far as we know today, we are the only creatures that are fortunate to be on a planet that is on a sustaining orbit around its star.

That’s it for today. I hope, you enjoyed it. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions, write me an email to hidden-space (at) gmx (dot) at or visit me at my website at www.hidden-space.at.tf and observe basic questions of astronomy’s past and future as well as hidden and devious facts.

Thanks for listening and clear-skies!
[Leon:] Good bye for now!

End of podcast:

365 Days of Astronomy
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