The pulsing heart of our solar system is an object thousands of degrees hot and so huge that a million Earths could fit inside. It bustles with activity, including occasional violent eruptions, and blankets the inner planets with light and heat. This amazing object is our closest star: the Sun.
We have known about the Sun for as long as people have been on Earth. During the day, the Sun appears as a disk of blinding light, slowly moving across the sky. For centuries, people noted the times of sunrise and sunset and used them as a calendar to guide them in the planting and harvesting of crops and to track the general time of day. The shadow the Sun cast on a sundial helped many ancient people plan their daily activities.
One of the first people to suggest that stars might be distant Suns was the Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno (1548-1600). His ideas were so opposed to the teaching of the church that he was burned at the stake.
Nowadays, astronomers build telescopes and launch satellites to better understand our nearest star. Space telescopes called SOHO (Solar and Heliospheric Observatory) and TRACE (Transition Region and Coronal Explorer) allow us to see the Sun in exciting new ways. Let’s begin our amazing journey to Touch the Sun!