I just finished watching all 16 parts of this series about the Sun over the last several hours today as this was a fantastic presentation and you sir are a fantastic instructor !!!
He's so casual about it all . funny thing is he knows the truth on how important this actually is . the sun is the single biggest threat from space to the earth . great lecture very PG 13 . the sun is very scary 😲
Thanks for this series, I watched the whole thing tonight (and looked up quite a few things on Wikipedia while doing so!). I think my favorite bit of knowledge is that the light that shines on us each day took a very long time (100,000+ years!) to get to us after the initial H --> He fusion reaction.
You are correct. The Oort cloud is part of the solar system and every object in the Oort cloud revolves around the Sun. But the Oort cloud is spherical in shape and the objects revolving around the Sun do not remain in the ecliptic plane.
Despite its small size and slow 59-day-long rotation, Mercury has a significant, and apparently global, magnetic field. According to measurements taken by Mariner 10, it is about 1.1% as strong as Earth's. wikipedia
HI. How long does it take for solar winds to reach the interstellar space. AND. What is the light and energy we use on Earth ? is it from solar winds or something else? like Corona Energy?
Wim V Yes, Mercury does have a magnetic field but it is very weak (about 1% the strength of Earth's magnetic field). Terrestrial type planets will always have some type of magnetic field (however small). But when compared to Earth, Mercury's field is very small. It is like saying that Mercury has an atmosphere. It is how you want to look at it.
How much "protection" does the magnetic field actually provide? Dr. Van Allen erroneously made the prediction that the Apollo missions would not be able to make it to the moon after they exited the earth's magnetic field... since Apollo made it to the moon and the astronauts barely detected increased radiation as they exited the magnetic field. Sounds like there some hype about earth's magnetic field?
The magnetic field is essential for life on Earth. Before astronauts were sent to the Moon, there was indeed concern about the Van Allen radiation belts. (People tend to fear what they don't understand)
