Here is where everything changes drastically. Viewing it without protection can lead to permanent eye damage.īut why does it appear red? Scientists believe that it is because of the presence of large amounts of hydrogen. However, during total solar eclipses, when the Moon blocks the photosphere, the chromosphere can be seen as a red ring around the Sun. The visible light from the chromosphere is often too weak to be seen against the brighter photosphere. Estimated temperatures are at about 7.800 degrees F / 4.320 degrees C. When it comes to the chromosphere, the next layer of the Sun’s atmosphere, it is far cooler. In the center of the big sunspots, temperatures can be as low as 7.300 degrees F / 4.000 degrees C. Sunspots on the photosphere are colder and darker than the surrounding area. In this region, the Sun’s radiation is detected as visible light. The Sun’s photosphere has been estimated to have temperatures at about 10.000 degrees F / 5.500 degrees C.

Large bubbles of hot plasma form a soup of ionized atoms and move upward to the photosphere. Temperatures here drop below 3.5 million degrees F / 2 million degrees C. From the core, energy moves to the radiative zone, where it bounces around for up to 1 million years before moving up to the convective zone, the upper layer of the Sun’s interior. This process creates vast amounts of energy, and it radiates outward to the Sun’s surface, atmosphere, and beyond. The process of nuclear fusion occurs when hydrogen atoms are compressed and fused together, creating helium.

Some estimates put the temperatures at 27 million degrees Fahrenheit / 15 million degrees Celsius. In the Sun’s core, gravitational attraction produces immense pressure and temperature. Though it is the hottest object in the solar system, other stars are far hotter, even tens of times so.īut how hot is the Sun? This question is a bit tricky to answer since this celestial object varies tremendously in temperatures, but here are some things to consider. Our Sun is an enormous energy and light-producing sphere of glowing gases. The average surface temperatures are at around 5.778 K, but they vary since it is composed out of three layers. The Sun is nearly a perfect sphere of hot plasma.

Suns photosphere