Joseph Prezioso, Age 12, Oferson, Va.., for his question:

How hot do they think the sun is?

The surface of the sun is estimated to be seething at about 10,000 degrees which is almost as hot as a blast furnace. But some recent studies suggest that the outer atmosphere of the sun is even hotter. The filmy corona which extends far about the surface of the sun may reach temperatures of two million degrees.

Still hotter is the seething heart of the sun, but science can only guess at conditions in the interior. The latest estimates suggest that the temperatures deep inside the sun may reach 27 million degrees.