Touch the Sun: A NASA Braille Book (2005)
Chapter: 3. The Interior Layers of the Sun
Figure 3.
The Interior Layers of the Sun
Imagine that we could take a pie-shaped slice out of the Sun and peek below the photosphere. We would see swirling patterns in the convective zone. This is the area where gases are rising and falling to make the granulation, above in the photosphere.
Traveling inward, we would reach the radiative zone where the gases are hotter and so dense that light, bouncing from one particle to another, takes 200,000 years to complete its journey through the radiative zone.
The very center of the Sun is called the solar core. This is where the nuclei of atoms collide and convert hydrogen into helium, releasing the tremendous energy of the Sun.
On the next page is a large circle outlining the Sun. Within the circle is our imaginary slice of the Sun removed. A texture of hollow circles in the outermost part of the slice represents convection currents, just like boiling water. The region just inside this part, the radiative zone, is denoted by a series of radiating lines. The solar core is represented by a rough-textured circle.
Credit: Steele Hill, SOHO/EIT, NASA/ESA
