It’s hard to understate the value of the sun to life on our little planet, even though we know so little about what goes on under the sun’s surface.
The only life in the universe that we have discovered so far (emphasis on the “so far”) requires liquid water for survival, which is abundant on planet Earth mainly thanks to our position 93 million miles out from the sun.
Earth resides in the band of space scientists call the “Goldilocks zone.” Yes, the name does indeed come from the story of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” This zone threads the needle between not too hot, close to the sun where liquid water would turn to steam, and not too cold, at a distance where water would be frozen.
Along with liquid water, sunlight is the energy that spurs many of the plants on our world to grow, thanks to photosynthesis, and allows for the survival of the animals that eat those plants, and the animals that eat those animals as well. It also heavily contributes to our weather as it warms the planet, pushing air currents to rise and fall in a complex system.
There are, of course, other factors that contribute to life on Earth as well. One is our magnetosphere, which actually protects us from the flow of charged particles that are let off from the sun in what is called the solar wind. Without it, we would be very much like the planet Mars, which is just outside of the Goldilocks zone and a little smaller than the Earth in size.
Mars used to have an atmosphere, and perhaps liquid water, but the solar wind stripped it away over time, making it the dusty, dry and lifeless place we know today.
So while the sun can be beneficial to life, it can also cause problems, for people and planets alike.
That pesky solar wind that stripped the atmosphere off of Mars can also wreak havoc with our technology, hammering satellite communications, GPS, and electronics as well as ground-based utility grids at its peak.
This last item, the threat to our burgeoning technology, is the reason NASA is launching the Parker Solar Probe spacecraft later this year. Considering our increasing dependence upon satellites and electricity, it seems prudent to learn as much as we can about how to better forecast the strength of the sun’s solar wind and how it may affect our systems, so we can better protect them.
The Parker Probe will be sent to “touch the sun,” flying to within 4 million miles of the surface to take readings and give us new data on solar activity in the hopes it will allow us to better predict it in the future.
If you want to be a small part of the mission, NASA is allowing people to submit their names for inclusion on a memory card that will be attached to the probe and flown to the sun. The process is very simple and only requires an email address and confirmation if you’d like to participate. Just head to parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/The-Mission/Name-to-Sun/
We may not know all there is to know about the star we are so dependent upon for life, but we keep taking steps forward to learn.
Looking up this week >> The Lyrids meteor shower peaks the evening of April 22, with about 20 meteors expected an hour. Viewing will be best from a dark area after the moon sets, around midnight. Mars and Saturn will be hanging out together this month in the southeast sky, rising late and staying past dawn as bright planets. You can tell them apart by Mars’ reddish tint. Jupiter will be rising in the east evening sky with Venus in the western sky at twilight. Sunrise is at 6:22 a.m. today, with sunset at 7:50 p.m. The moon is currently a waxing crescent and will be first quarter on Sunday.