John Taylor, Professor of Economics at Stanford University and developer of the "Taylor Rule" for setting interest rates | Stanford University
John Taylor, Professor of Economics at Stanford University and developer of the "Taylor Rule" for setting interest rates | Stanford University
Shea Hess Webber, a solar physicist with the Hansen Experimental Physics Laboratory group at Stanford, offers unique insights into the mysteries of the sun. Her fascination with celestial bodies was sparked by an unusual childhood experience. "One of my siblings went through this phase where they were convinced they were an alien, and would tell anybody who would listen that the Mothership was coming back for them," said Hess Webber. This ignited her interest in studying stars, astronomy, and physics.
Despite confirming that her family is entirely Earthling, Hess Webber's interest in the cosmos continues unabated. She finds the sun particularly captivating. "Well, above all, it’s just beautiful. If you look at the data that we work with, I can’t imagine not wanting to look at this all the time,” she said.
Hess Webber shared some intriguing facts about our closest star:
1. The sun is teal: According to Hess Webber, while the sun radiates along the entire electromagnetic spectrum (making it white), its peak emission is in the teal visible light spectrum due to its mass and burning temperature.
2. The sun is 20.5 years old: While in Earth years, the sun is about 4.57 billion years old; measured in galactic years (how long it takes for the sun to orbit around the galaxy), it's only 20.5 years old.
3. The sun gets hotter as you move away from it: While intuitively one might expect temperatures to decrease as one moves away from a heat source like the sun, this isn't true for our star. Temperatures spike beyond its surface and continue to rise further out into space.
4. Getting too much sun can age you: Despite Earth's atmosphere absorbing most of the Sun's radiation, ultraviolet light still penetrates through to varying degrees causing skin damage and aging even without causing a burn.
5. The sun is mysterious: Predicting solar activities such as flares or coronal mass ejections remains a challenge for scientists. The current capabilities for forecasting space weather are comparable to where Earth weather predictions were half a century ago.
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