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The Sun

The Sun is a yellow dwarf star (G2V), about 4.6 billion years old, and the dominant gravitational force in the Solar System. It has a diameter of roughly 1.4 million kilometers and contains around 99.8% of the Solar System’s mass. Nuclear fusion in its core converts hydrogen into helium, producing energy that warms the planets. Above the core lie the radiative and convective zones, followed by the visible photosphere (~5,500 °C), the chromosphere, and the much hotter corona (~2 million °C).

Source: science.nasa.gov

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Finding Comet Lemmon

20/10/2025

Finding Comet Lemmon
Image Credit: Petr Horalek / Institute of Physics in Opava / NASA APOD

Tonight, if you can see the stars of the Big Dipper, then you can find comet Lemmon in your evening sky. After sunset, look for the faint but extended comet above your northwestern horizon -- but below the handle of the famous celestial kitchen utensil of the north. It might be easier to see this visitor to the inner Solar System through your camera phone, which is better at picking up faint objects. Either way, look for a fuzzy green 'star' with a tail, though probably not so long a tail as in this impressive snapshot taken over Seč Lake in the Czech Republic two nights ago. Recent photographs of C/2025 A6 (Lemmon) often show a detailed and changing ion tail which extends farther than the eye can follow. This Sun-orbiting comet is now near its closest approach to Earth and will pass its closest to the Sun in early November.