What in the world is a solar model?

Over time, many changes have been made to our understanding of the sun. In the past 25 years, scientists have calculated a model of it, using information from current technology. They call it the Standard Solar Model.

The Standard Solar Model predicts that the sun consists of a core that is surrounded by three layers. These layers include the radiative layer, the convective layer, and the photosphere. The sun's core has half of the sun's mass. That means that the center of the sun is packed very tight. This is where nuclear fusion occurs. It has been calculated that it takes 14,000 million years for one proton to fuse with another. The core produces x-ray photons that work their way to the surface of the sun through the radiative zone. This layer is packed with hot gases and electrons called plasma. Currents then carry the sun's energy to the surface in the convective layer. The surface or photosphere (light ball) is the bright surface of the sun. This is the area of the sun that early scientists focused most of their attention. The granular surface of the sun contains sunspots that come and go in a regular eleven-year pattern. The lower atmosphere of the sun is called the chromosphere (color ball). Because it emits very little light, early scientists did not study it. Today, astronomers find many interesting features including loops of hydrogen gas called prominences in the chromosphere. The corona (crown) is the outermost layer of the sun and is the most mysterious layer of all. It can only be seen during a total solar eclipse.