Exam 9: The Sun: Our Extraordinary Ordinary Star

When two protons and two neutrons combine to form ⁴He,the helium nucleus is less massive than the sum of the four original particles used to construct it.What is the significance of this result?

What is the MAIN source of the energy radiated by stars?

The rotation of the Sun is:

Is there a connection between plages and sunspots?

Sunspots are regions where the Sun's magnetic field penetrates the photosphere.What holds each spot together?

What stops the Sun from collapsing under the force of its own gravity?

How are spicules formed in the Sun's chromosphere?

Of the three ways in which heat energy is transmitted from one place to another (radiation,conduction,convection),which is/are important in carrying heat from the solar interior to the surface of the Sun?

In carrying energy through the interior of the Sun,there are many collisions between particles (photons,ions,atoms).What is the net direction of the energy flow in these collisions?

Who first postulated that hydrogen fusion reactions are responsible for generating the energy produced by the Sun?

What name is given to a brighter region in the chromosphere,often in association with a sunspot?

One of the effects which accompanied the Maunder minimum in sunspot numbers during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was:

The centers of the granular cells on the surface of the Sun appear to be brighter than the edges of the cells because:

Astronomers have compared the relative abundances of different isotopes of neon found in Moon rocks with those found in the solar wind.What conclusion have they drawn?

Galileo observed the phenomenon of solar rotation in the early 1600s by:

By how much does the mass of the Sun decrease each second because of the energy radiated from it (its luminosity)? (See the discussion in Discovery 9-1 in Comins,Discovering the Essential Universe,6th ed.)

What is a typical magnetic field strength inside a sunspot?

The solar wind originates primarily:

The time it takes for neutrinos generated in the thermonuclear reactions at the center of the Sun to escape from its surface is:

What is the difference between a filament and a prominence?