If it wasn’t for the sun, all human life as we know it, would not exist. That was the stark reality delivered by Bob Mizon in his talk given to the society on 7th March about the Vital Role of the Sun.
And watch out, because the sun is halfway through it’s natural cycle and has only another five billion years life before it starts to burn out!
The Sun- our local star, is vital to our existence and although it is losing about four million tons of matter into space as energy, every second, it still grows our food, causes our weather patterns and seasons, and drives our cars through the creation of fossil fuels and oil.
It is so bright and warm because it is so relatively large and close to us. Energy is expressed through a series of internal atomic explosions converting hydrogen into helium thus releasing mamouth amounts of energy into space, which is kept within its solar sphere through its enormous gravitational forces. It is a mere 864,000 miles across giving us a constant supply of energy.
The sun is just one star within millions in our galaxy, which in turn is just one galaxy amongst millions of other galaxies in the universe. After the talk, some members gathered outside with Bob and he was able to show us some major stars and constellations in a cloudless night sky, which was amazing.
Peter Dutton
Next Meeting...........11th April, 2008 The Banks of Newfoundland (and Dorset Fishermen's Links) Speaker Bonny Sartin
for more information about this and other talks go to the Village Society's programme