The Miracle Behind Every Dawn

Every morning, the sunlight warms us. It looks quiet and steady. But out in the dark, that bright circle is doing strange things to make life on Earth possible.

Two Kinds of Heat
The outside of the Sun sits right around 10,000°F—hot enough to turn steel to steam. But deep in its core, the furnace burns at an unimaginable 27 million°F.

Light Born 100,000 Years Ago
The light touching you today was born deep inside the Sun more than 100,000 years ago. It bounced and wandered through the dense interior for ages just to reach the edge.

A 500-Second Dash
Once free of the Sun, the light races across 93 million miles of empty blackness in just 500 seconds (about eight minutes) to reach your eyes.

A Million Miles an Hour
The Sun sends out more than light—it breathes out a relentless stream of electrified particles called the solar wind. This wind roars through space at one million miles every hour, taking about four days to reach Earth.

Earth’s Shield and the Glowing Sky
Our planet is protected by an invisible magnetic shield that blocks this violent storm. When the solar wind hits, the particles slide down toward the cold ends of the world, crashing into our upper air to paint the night sky with the glowing green and purple ripples of the auroras.