‘The Heavens Declare . . .’

Approximately 93 million miles [150 million km] from where you are right now, the sun shines with fiery brilliance in the sky. Worshiped as a god for thousands of years, our glorious celestial neighbor is, rather, a testimony to the power of its Creator, “the Maker of heaven and earth.” (Psalm 115:15) Its brightness and warmth are essential for life on earth. And the facts scientists have learned about it fill us with wonder.

We are told that the sun produces vast amounts of energy. Did you realize that less than half a billionth of the heat and light that it generates are intercepted by the earth? Yet, that fraction amounts each minute to a colossal 240,000,000,000,000 horsepower!

How does the sun make all that energy? By means of a vast nuclear furnace in its core that produces energy by consuming about four million short tons [3.6 million metric tons] of hydrogen every second. Happily for mankind, there is enough fuel in the sun to keep this process going for billions of years.

Some things scientists have discovered raise further questions. For example, the sun is constantly vibrating, like a metal sheet hit with a hammer. Why? Also, consider this: The blazing core of the sun is its hottest part and the farther a layer is from the core, the cooler it is. But when we come to the outer layer of the sun’s atmosphere, the corona, that changes. The corona is hotter than layers closer to the burning core. Why?

Further, while​—like the earth—​the sun rotates, different parts rotate at different speeds. For example, the surface rotates faster than the layers inside. Why? And how is that possible? Then there are the sunspots. These blemishes on the sun’s surface come and go in a regular cycle over a period of 11 years. Why do they change in such a regular way?

Although there is much yet to be learned about the sun, what we already know makes us look with awe upon its Creator, Jehovah. Every time we see the sun, we are reminded that “the heavens are declaring the glory of God; and of the work of his hands the expanse is telling.”​—Psalm 19:1.