Inner Layers
- The Sun’s core is made of plasma, about 27 million degrees Celsius. At such high temperatures hydrogen combines to form helium by nuclear fusion, a process that releases huge amounts of energy. This energy moves outward, towards the outer layers of the Sun.
- The Radiative Zone is just outside the core. It's seven million degrees Celsius. Energy from the core travels really slow through the radiative zone. A photon travels not very far before it hits another particle then gets absorbed and released again. A photon takes almost 50 million years to go all the way through the radiative zone.
- In the Convection Zone, plasma and other hot materials near the radiative zone rises and cools at the suns surface. Then goes back downward to the radiative zone and that causes the sun spots and solar flares.
Outer Layers
The next three layers make up the Sun’s atmosphere.
The Photosphere is the visible layer of the sun, it projects the sunlight. The photosphere is the coolest part of the sun, 6,700 Celsius.
The Chromosphere is a thin layer 2,000 km thick, and gets heated by the energy from photosphere, the temperatures about 4,000 to 10,000 Celsius.
The Corona is the outermost plasma layer. Its temperature is 2 to 5 million Celsius, much hotter than the Photosphere.
The Photosphere is the visible layer of the sun, it projects the sunlight. The photosphere is the coolest part of the sun, 6,700 Celsius.
The Chromosphere is a thin layer 2,000 km thick, and gets heated by the energy from photosphere, the temperatures about 4,000 to 10,000 Celsius.
The Corona is the outermost plasma layer. Its temperature is 2 to 5 million Celsius, much hotter than the Photosphere.