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The Turbulent Sun

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Abstract

To us, the Sun is the most splendid object in the sky; it is all-important, and without it the Earth would not have been born. True, it is only a normal star – 1 of 100,000 million in our Galaxy – but it is the only star close enough to be studied in detail; it is a mere 93 million miles away, and light from it can reach us in only 8.6 min. Light from the nearest star beyond the Sun, Proxima Centauri, takes over 4 years to reach us. Represent the Earth–Sun distance by one inch, and Proxima will be over 4 miles away.

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© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Moore, P. (2010). The Turbulent Sun. In: The Sky at Night. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6409-0_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6409-0_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-6408-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-6409-0

  • eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)

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