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Sol

Early Solar System The Solar System originated in a rotating cloud of dust and gas, which collected into larger bodies to become planets. At the centre the Sun became large and hot enough to generate nuclear fusion. Gouache.	Solar System The Sun is of course the centre and powerhouse of our Solar System. Artwork of the orbits and planets commissioned by Focus magazine for use as a wall chart (given away as a poster with the magazine). This was of course done when Pluto was still a planet! Gouache.	The Sun's Corona The Sun is surrounded by an 'atmosphere' which reaches thousands of kilometres into space. Normally it becomes visible only during a total eclipse. Gouache.
Sun Cutaway A cutaway of the Sun showing its main features: sunspots, flares, prominences, faculae, corona and, internally, its immensely hot core and the convection cells which bring heat to the surface. The core is shown as dark because no light is produced until photons reach the photosphere, by a zigzag route which can take a million years! (Gouache, from Book of the Universe by Ian Ridpath.) Available as an Original (see Original Artworks.)	End of the Earth. Billions of years from now our Sun will start to expand into a Red Giant. This is a scene near the beginning of this process. Unless we have moved to the planet of another star, mankind will become extinct. (Gouache, from Atlas of the Solar System by David A. Hardy.)	Red Giant Sun Billions of years into the future the Sun will expand to a bloated Red Giant, eventually gobbling up poor old Earth as it becomes a ball of molten slag . . . (Gouache, from Book of the Universe by Ian Ridpath.)
Red Giant 2 This is a digital version from Futures, showing the Sun just before Earth is swallowed up.

The Sun is the centre and powerhouse of our Solar System. In this section we see its composition and its appearance in the past, present and future. (Click on main image to see more)

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