12.22 Determination of Solar Constant

Dominating our little corner of the universe is the mighty glowing orb of the Sun which is the ultimate source of all terrestrial energy. The warmth and light of the Sun are the most important things to us on the Earth; without them there would be no life of any type, the sky would be black and the temperature would be deadly cold. The blazing Sun is a sphere remarkable in magnitude of hot glowing gas, the diameter of the main ball of the Sun is nearly 13,90,000 km which is 109 times the diameter of the Earth. The Sun is 150 million km distant from us. Astronomers considers this distance as a convenient unit of distance in solar system called astronomical unit. It is highly dangerous to see the Sun by any ...

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