The Sun & Solar Activity
📋 What it is
The Sun is our local star; sunspots, flares and solar wind are its stormy activity that reaches Earth.
🗣️ Coach says
The Sun is a fairly ordinary star we happen to live beside. Its surface churns with sunspots (cooler dark patches), flares (sudden bursts) and a constant solar wind of particles. This "space weather" can spark auroras and disrupt satellites and power grids on Earth.
🧠 Memory hook
Sun = our star. Sunspots · flares · solar wind = space weather that reaches Earth.
😂 Giggle
Why was the nebula so colorful?
It was going through a phase — a star-forming phase!
😲 Whoa!
A single solar flare can release as much energy as billions of atomic bombs — and its particles can reach Earth in under a day, lighting up auroras.
✅ Quick check: What causes auroras (northern/southern lights) on Earth?
Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.
Charged particles from the Sun’s solar wind hit Earth’s atmosphere near the poles and make the gases glow.
Auroras are Earth’s atmosphere reacting to solar particles.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Look up a recent aurora photo. It’s literally the Sun’s wind glowing in our sky.