Let's hear it for The Sun, ladies and gentlemen. It's impossible to think of anything more important—to our very existence, our history, our evolution, and our future as a species. So it's a big subject: the sun is responsible for super-basic stuff like day and night, the year, the weather, and the climate. It's the key to almost all life on earth, the source of all our energy (one way or another), the key ingredient in everything we eat, and the indispensable element in our vacations. I mean, who wants to vacation in the rain?
Astronomically speaking, the sun is our home star, a member of the "yellow dwarf" class. It's 4.6 billion years old, over a hundred times bigger in diameter than earth, and weighs 330,000 times as much, despite being 98% hydrogen and helium—two of the lightest materials in existence. The sun is a bright sphere of superheated plasma; at its core is a nuclear furnace, where fusion of hydrogen atoms creates temperatures of almost 30 million degrees Fahrenheit, while the surface of the sun is a relatively balmy 10,000 degrees. We're 93 million miles away, and it still feels hot!
The sun has been central to many human cultures and religions since prehistoric times. It's been worshipped as a deity and celebrated in myth, art and literature, especially in ancient Egypt. Those days are gone, but ambient electronic artists are still inspired by it. On this transmission of Hearts of Space...a tribute to the sun and its season, on a program called HELIOS.
Music is by SOLAR FIELDS, AES DANA, STEVE ROACH, ISHQ, ALPHA WAVE MOVEMENT, ERIC WØLLO, MAX CORBACHO, and HOLLAN HOLMES.
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