Superb Sunsets

I was reminded of the sun the other day. Which may sound strange - but it struck me that, in the words of Pumbaa from the Lion King; its a ball of gas burning billions of miles away.

So I looked up some sun facts (makes a change from ice, right!), and here goes. Actually, it was relevant to thesis amendments - the sun shines wavelengths of light down upon the earth, the petals on the flowers reflect the wavelengths into the centre of the flower, and all the sexy stuff happens quickly and efficiently, just as it should. I believe there is a bit more detail here and there, but that is the gist of it all. Thesis in a nutshell!!

Back to the sun. The sun is almost perfectly spherical according to some sources - my own observations at sunset are in keeping with this. Light from this ball of burning gas (mostly hydrogen if www.sciencekids.co.nz is correct) reaches the earth in approximately 8 minutes.

Spherical ball of burning gas at the center of our solar system

The sun produces 'solar winds' which contains charged particles - and don't quote me on this, but I believe that these particles have some role to play in the Aurora... Because whenever there is a solar storm, the aurora is far more active than when there isnt a storm.

The Midnight Sun has been a common feature in my polar endeavours. One night I hiked up to the Plateau above Longyearbyen in Svalbard, and watched the sun sink down, and down, until it brushed across the tops of the jagged mountains across the fjord... before rising again to take its place in the sky! This was the final circuit around the sky without setting for that season - 22 August.

Last of the Midnight Sun in Longyearbyen

The sun is same at the other end of the world (same sun so it makes sense). A memorable sunset on Campbell Island occurred around 2230 hrs, with a skua gliding around my head checking out what these crazy botanists were doing out at that time of night. All sorts of moths were flitting about, and after having read numerous accounts of shipwreck survivors being 'seen' wandering the peat bogs... It was eerie, the wind had dropped and the skua was hovering about and it would have been the perfect moment for a historical ghost to spring out of the Dracophyllym and shout "Yah!!".

Needless to say, there was no ghost. Just the sun quietly sinking below the horizon.