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[[File:The Sun.jpg|400px|thumb|The Sun photographed in white light (true color)]] | [[File:The Sun.jpg|400px|thumb|The Sun photographed in white light (true color)]] | ||
The '''Sun''' is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radiation, and is the most important source of energy for life on Earth. | The '''Sun''' is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radiation, and is the most important source of energy for life on [[Earth]]. | ||
It formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of matter within a region of a large molecular cloud. | It formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of matter within a region of a large molecular cloud. | ||
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The theory that the Sun is the center around which the planets orbit was first proposed by the ancient Greek Aristarchus of Samos in the third century BC, and later adopted by Seleucus of Seleucia. This view was developed in a more detailed mathematical model of a heliocentric system in the 16th century by [[Nicolaus Copernicus]]. | The theory that the Sun is the center around which the planets orbit was first proposed by the ancient Greek Aristarchus of Samos in the third century BC, and later adopted by Seleucus of Seleucia. This view was developed in a more detailed mathematical model of a heliocentric system in the 16th century by [[Nicolaus Copernicus]]. | ||
The invention of the telescope in the early 17th century permitted detailed observations of sunspots by Thomas Harriot, [[Galileo Galilei]] and other astronomers. Galileo posited that sunspots were on the surface of the Sun rather than small objects passing between Earth and the Sun. | The invention of the telescope in the early 17th century permitted detailed observations of sunspots by Thomas Harriot, [[Galileo Galilei]] and other astronomers. Galileo posited that sunspots were on the surface of the Sun rather than small objects passing between [[Earth]] and the Sun. | ||
==Solar Religion== | ==Solar Religion== | ||