| Bibliographic Entry | Result (w/surrounding text) |
Standardized Result |
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| Namowitz, Samuel N. and Spaulding, Nancy E. Earth Science. Evanston, IL: McDougal Littell Company, 1999. | "Compared to Earth, the sun is enormous. It has a diameter of 1,400,000 kilometers, which is more than three times the distance from Earth to the moon, the longest distance humans have traveled in space. It would take a jet flying at three times the speed of sound more than two months to fly all the way around the sun." | 1.4 × 109 m | |||||||||||||||
| "Sun" Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. 6th ed. Columbia University Press, 2003. | "The sun is approximately 865,400 mi (1,392,000 km) in diameter, and its volume is about 1,300,000 times that of the earth." | 1.392 × 109 m | |||||||||||||||
| Sinnott, Roger. Senior Editor, Sky and Telescope Magazine. Electronic Mail. 20 May 2004. | "The value of the Sun's radius to be used for astronomical purposes is 696,000 km. That means the diameter is 1,392,000 km." | 1.392 × 109 m | |||||||||||||||
| Tuma, Jan K. Handbook of Physical Calculation. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1976. |
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1.392 × 109 m | |||||||||||||||
| The Amazing Structure of the Sun. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), 2003. | "The diameter of the Sun is about 1,390,000 km. The average diameter of the Earth is 12,740 km. About 109 Earths could be placed side-by-side along the diameter of the Sun." | 1.39 × 109 m |
The Sun is located at the center of the solar system, where nine planets in addition to moons, comets and asteroids rotate around it. Our planet, Earth, rotates around the Sun about 93,000,000 miles away. Earth is significantly smaller than the sun, within an incredible diameter about 1,400,000,000 meters (109 times that of the Earth).
Jean Picard an astronomy professor from Paris, was the first to develop a system for measuring the diameter of the sun. In the mid 1600s, he created a micrometer, which allowed him to measure the diameter of not only the sun but the moon and planets as well. With the aid of the telescope and Snell's triangulation method (which helped to determine the Earth's radius), Picard was able to make measuring the diameter of the sun highly effective. Picard's method of measurement affected the world and were later used by Isaac Newton in his gravitational theory.
The linear measurements (converted from the angular measurements) of the sun of photosphere (the sun's surface) are necessary to determine the diameter of sun. The angular diameter can be measure best by using Picard's telescope during a solar eclipse or by recording Mercury's time as it pass in front of the sun.
In about eight billion years it is estimated that the sun's radius (and consequently its diameter) will increase greatly due to the large amount of heat that the sun produces. This increase in heat will also change the sun's intensity by 10%, and will most likely have a very disastrous impact on Earth.
Emily Louick -- 2004