Illustration of the sun with visible dark sunspots on the surface, prominences and some solar wind.

Illustration of the sun with visible dark sunspots on the surface, prominences and some solar wind.

Illustration of the sun with visible dark sunspots on the surface, prominences and some solar wind blowing off at the right. Mercury is the white dot, in scale, to the right. The Sun is approximately 300 times larger than Mercury, and 120 times larger than the Earth. The light from the sun takes 8 minutes and 20 seconds to reach us, but the solar wind is much slower. Once it arrives, it can wreak havoc in our atmosphere, creating auroras, but also magnetic storms that blow out electrical infrastructure.

Album / Fahad Sulehria/Stocktrek Images

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