The Sun is WHAT?!?

5E Model: EXPLAIN

Today, we learned more about the sun. Our key points:

• The sun is about 108 times larger than the diameter of the Earth (model for size- Sun = beach ball & kernel = Earth)
• The swirling granules and gases and dark patches are called sunspots
• The Sun is the closest star to earth
• The Sun is not the largest star in our universe 
• The Sun is made of gases: helium and hydrogen
• The Sun's gravity is what keeps the ball of gases together
• The Sun supplies life on Earth with its heat and light energy

Questions to ask your kids:

• If the sun is so large and so hot, why doesn't it make the Earth burning hot?
• If the Sun is so much larger than the Earth, why does it look about the size of our moon, which is smaller than the earth?
• If the Sun is a star, why does it look so different from the other stars that we see in the sky at night? 
• How is the sun like a candle? 

Surface of the Sun experiment: