Welcome to You Ask Andy

Charles Wylie, age 15, of Columbia, SC., for his question:

 Does the sun have an atmosphere?

The sun, we are told, is made entirely of blazing gases. Nevertheless there is an envelope of thinner, rare gases around the dense, gassy core. This filmy outer layer of gases we call the suns atmosphere. For convenience of study, we divide it into threw layers.

The lower layer, next to the radiant surface of the sun, is called the reversing layer. It causes the dark lines in the solar spectrum and extends up some 1,200 miles. Above the reversing layer is the chromosphere or color‑giving sphere. This layer, much cooler than the surface of the sun, extends up some 6,000 miles.

Beyond the chromosphere is the sun's carom. We see this filmy, pearl white halo of gases in total solar eclipses, when the moon blots out the radiant surface of the sun. Altogether the sums atmosphere extends perhaps 900,000 miles above its blazing surface.

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