When asked of the hottest thing that could burn melt and burn all things on earth, a quick response would be the solar systems very own Sun. The Sun is made up of different gases such as hydrogen and helium. Different areas of the Sun have varying degrees of hotness. Would you believe that what is considered as the coldest part of the Sun called the Sun spot has temperatures of 6,700 degrees Fahrenheit? It is several times hotter than a volcano’s lava. The Sun spot is an area of the Sun where cool and dark areas of magnetic disturbance erupt.

The surface of the Sun called the photosphere has a temperature of about 10 000 degrees Fahrenheit while the chromosphere or the layer of the Sun’s atmosphere lying beyond the photosphere is about 7,800 degrees Fahrenheit. The Sun’s corona or the outermost atmospheric layer can be as hot as about 180 000 degrees Fahrenheit. The farthest point of the corona from the Sun has temperatures that can reach to up to 3,600,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The corona is also that bright halo of light that that is seen during a total solar eclipse. The Sun’s hottest part is its center where temperatures of about 27,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit are registered.

The reason why the center of the Sun is its hottest part is a process called fusion. This process is also the reason why sunlight is seen here on earth. Fusion causes atoms of the gases in the Sun to collide frequently such that it produces enough energy to ionize the gases. Then the collision of the ions will result in nuclear reactions at rates sufficient enough to emit energy required to give the Sun its radiance and luminosity. The reactions in various parts of the Sun involve the burning of hydrogen to helium.