Submitted by elsbeth on Tue, 2009-10-27 16:58

Origin of the sun

 

The sun is a star. Like all stars, the sun arose from a cloud of gas. Within a gas cloud, some areas end up with a little more gas than others. Due to mass and gravity, these areas attract even more gas. Eventually, a large amount of gas will gather around the centre of the gas cloud. This creates pressure. The gas condenses and the temperature rises. At a certain point, core fusion will occur. This will cause the gas to radiate. When pressure and gas reach equilibrium, a star is formed.

The sun is 4.5 billion years old. It is estimated that the sun is halfway through its existence. In another 5 billion years, the sun will cease to exist.