Temperatures in and around the Sun vary considerably. On the Sun’s surface, called its photosphere, the temperature is around 5500 °C (10,000°F). Above this lies a hotter section of the atmosphere called the chromosphere, where temperatures can reach 15, 000 °C (27, 000°F). Temperatures in the core of the Sun can exceed an incredible 15 million °C (27 million °F).
The sun, a massive nuclear-powered source of energy at the center of the solar system, generates the heat and light that sustain life on Earth. But how hot is the sun?
The answer is different for each part of the sun. Arranged in layers, the sun varies in temperature: It is hottest at its center and cooler in its outer layers— until it strangely reheats at the fringes of the sun’s atmosphere. At the sun’s core, gravity causes intense pressure, and temperatures of up to 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius). This generates the nuclear fusion responsible for the star’s energy.
That energy then radiates outward in the sun’s inner radiative zone, which lacks the heat and pressure to cause fusion. In that zone, temperatures drop from 12.6 million to 3.6 million F (7 million to 2 million C). In the next zone, called the convective zone, plasma bubbles carry heat to the surface. This zone hits about 3.5 million F.
Next, energy reaches the surface of the sun, or photosphere, producing the light visible from Earth, and a comparatively chilly 10,000 F (5,500 C). Hydrogen atoms get compressed and fuse together, creating helium. This process is called nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion produces huge amounts of energy. The energy radiates outward to the sun’s surface, atmosphere and beyond. From the core, energy moves to the radiative zone, where it bounces around for up to 1 million years before moving up to the convective zone, the upper layer of the sun’s interior. The temperature here drops below 3.5 million degrees F (2 million degrees C). Large bubbles of hot plasma form a soup of ionized atoms and move upward to the photosphere.
Picture Credit : Google
