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Keep shoppingThe Mighty Sun and the Cooking of Mercury
4 students
The Mighty Sun and the Cooking of Mercury
Our Sun and its Closest Planet
Created byTony Ceraso
Last updated 1/2025
English
English [Auto],
What you'll learn
- The Sun on a beautiful day is peaceful and nurturing. But if you step outside the protection of the Earth's atmosphere the sun becomes a deadly furnace of ignited nuclear fuel. Discover how the Sun affects the Earth with aurora and magnetic storms and take a close up look at the furnace of the Sun where you will find solar tornadoes the size of North America and temperatures of more than 25 million degrees. Lost in the flames of the Sun is the planet Mercury, stripped of everything by the violence of the Sun but none the less speeding around it every 88 days.
- Warm-up activity
- Size of the Sun as compared to the Earth and other planets
- Nuclear fusion - the Sun's energy
- The Sun's gravity and it's effect on the Solar System
- Atmospheric temperature variations within the sun
- What are sunspots and how are they formed. Can you see them from Earth?
- Solar magnetic storms
- Sun’s rotation on its axis and orbit around the center of the galaxy
- Surface features: solar tornadoes, spicules, solar prominences, coronel loops
- Concept of transits: transits of Mercury, Venus and artificial satellites
- Solar Eclipses
- The Sun’s storms, the Earth’s magnetic fields and the aurora
- Overview of Mercury’s surface and atmosphere
- The consequences of Mercury’s proximity to the Sun
- Extreme temperature variations on Mercury's surface - why?
- Water and Ice on Mercury
- Observing Mercury from Earth
- Missions to Mercury
- The concept of Gravity Assist maneuvers for spacecrafts within the solar system
- Mercury’s orbital period, rotation, axis and day-night cycle
- Test Questions and Answers
- Cross Curricular Activities
Explore related topics
Course content
10 sections • 11 lectures • 2h 7m total length
Requirements
- No
Description
The Sun on a beautiful day is peaceful and nurturing. But if you step outside the protection of the Earth's atmosphere the sun becomes a deadly furnace of ignited nuclear fuel. Discover how the Sun affects the Earth with aurora and magnetic storms and take a close up look at the furnace of the Sun where you will find solar tornadoes the size of North America and temperatures of more than 25 million degrees.
Lost in the flames of the Sun is the planet Mercury, stripped of everything by the violence of the Sun but none the less speeding around it every 88 days.
This Course includes the following great BONUS LESSONS:
What on Earth is Astronomy?
Mini-Lesson: Eclipses
Mini-Lesson: Meteor Showers
Mini-Lesson: Aurora
Project Artemis: America Returns to the Moon
The Mighty Sun and the Cooking of Mercury
1. Objective
2. Warm-up activity
3. Size of the Sun as compared to the Earth and other planets
4. Nuclear fusion – the Sun’s energy
5. The Sun’s gravity and its effect on the Solar System
6. Temperature variations
7. Sunspots
8. Magnetic storms
9. Sun’s rotation on its axis and orbit around the center of the galaxy
10. Surface features: solar tornadoes, spicules, solar prominences, coronel loops,
11. The solar activity cycle: solar minimum and maximums
12. Solar atmospheres: photosphere, chromosphere and coronas
13. Concept of transits: transits of Mercury, Venus and artificial satellites
14. Solar eclipses
15. The Sun’s storms, the Earth’s magnetic fields and the aurora
16. Overview of Mercury’s surface and atmosphere
17. Mercury’s proximity to the Sun and temperature variations
18. Water on Mercury
19. Observing Mercury from Earth
20. Mercury’s orbital period, rotation and day-night cycle
21. Exploring Mercury with the Mariner and Messenger probes
22. Discussion of gravity assists
23. Test questions
24. Cross-curricular activities
Who this course is for:
- Anyone interested in Astronomy