Radiative Zone


Radiation is a very important aspect of the Sun.  It is the main process through which the Sun transfers its energy out into space.  The radiative zone of the solar interior is characterized by the process of radiation.

 

In radiation, energy diffuses out from the core through photons. They move very quickly (at the speed of light!), but they also bounce off so many other particles that it takes hundreds of thousands of years for them to get through the radiative zone.  All of the bouncing off of other particles sends the photons flying off in all directions, instead of taking a straight path outward.  This is called a random walk.  You can see this in the illustration.

Radiation moving out from this part of the Sun gets absorbed more readily, reducing the amount that actually makes its way out of the Sun.  This leads to convection.  The process of convection is outlined in the section on the convective zone.

This is a diagram of the layers of the Sun.  Here you can see the radiative zone is directly outside of the core.

 

 

 

 

Click here for a more detailed version of this page.

The Sun        Core      Convective zone        Photosphere      Chromosphere     Corona