As an astrological planet, the Sun represents the ego or the persona of an individual, hence, the emphasis which is placed upon people's sun-signs. It should be mentioned that there is far more to astrology than the mostly execrable drivel that appears in the daily newspapers based on those signs, but, similarly, there is more to people than their personas.

Generally, the Sun was considered to be a god rather than a goddess. Sol, Apollo and Ra were all sun gods. One notable exception to this rule is Amaterasu, the Japanese sun goddess.

The sol in solar system.

Here are some statistics for this important stellar body. See the Anatomy of the Sun for more intimate details!

Age
At least 4.5 billion years, in present state.

Diameter
1.39 x 106 km

Volume
1.41 x 1025 m3 (1.3 million times the volume of the Earth)

Mass
1.99 x 1030 kg (or 333,000 times the weight of the Earth)

Energy output
3.86 x 1033 ergs/second or 386 billion billion megawatts

Chemical composition of photosphere (by weight, in percent)
Hydrogen - 73.46
Helium - 24.85
Oxygen - 0.77
Carbon - 0.29
Iron - 0.16
Neon - 0.12
Nitrogen - 0.09
Silicon - 0.07
Magnesium - 0.05
Sulfur - 0.01
Density (water=1)
Mean density of entire Sun
1.41 g/cm3
Interior (center of the Sun)
160 g/cm3
Surface (photosphere)
10-9 g/cm3
Chromosphere
10-12 g/cm3
Low corona
10-16 g/cm3

Temperature
Interior (center)
15,000,000 K
Surface (effective) of Sun
5800 K
Sunspot umbra (typical)
4240 K
Penumbra (typical)
5680 K
Chromosphere
4300 to 50,000 K
Corona
800,000 to 3,000,000 K

Rotation (as seen from the Earth)
Of solar equator
26.8 days
At solar latitude 30 deg
28.2 days
At solar latitude 60 deg
30.8 days
At solar latitude 75 deg
31.8 days


Source: http://solar-center.stanford.edu/vitalstats.html

KANJI: NICHI JITSU hi (sun, day, light, Sunday)

ASCII Art Representation:


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Character Etymology:

A pictograph of the sun, the center line represents a sunspot.

Other Facts:

Oh course, this is the 'ni' in 'nihon' and 'nihongo,' Japan and Japanese respectively.

Unicode Encoded Versions: 日本日本語

A Listing of All On-Yomi and Kun-Yomi Readings:

on-yomi: NICHI JITSU
kun-yomi: hi -bi -ka

Nanori Readings:

Nanori: a aki iru ku kusa kou su tachi ni niっ nitsu he

English Definitions:

  1. JITSU, NICHI, NITSU: day; Sunday.
  2. hi: sun; time; day, date.
  3. hi(narazu): before long, in a few days.
  4. hi niwa: if, in case.
  5. hi(mosugara): all day long.
  6. -ka: day.
  7. -nichi-: Japanese.

Character Index Numbers:

New Nelson: 2410
Henshall: 62

Unicode Encoded Version:

Unicode Encoded Compound Examples:

日曜日 (nichiyoubi): Sunday.
日の (hi(no)de): sunrise.
日の (hi(no)i(ri)): sunset.
(nihonkai): The Sea of Japan.
日和 (hiyorimi): weather forecasting; weather vain; oppertunism; marking time; wait-and-see (policy).
(nisshoku): solar eclipse (sun-food!)

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suitably small = S = sun lounge

Sun n.

Sun Microsystems. Hackers remember that the name was originally an acronym, Stanford University Network. Sun started out around 1980 with some hardware hackers (mainly) from Stanford talking to some software hackers (mainly) from UC Berkeley; Sun's original technology concept married a clever board design based on the Motorola 68000 to BSD Unix. Sun went on to lead the workstation industry through the 1980s, and for years afterwards remained an engineering-driven company and a good place for hackers to work. Though Sun drifted away from its techie origins after 1990 and has since made some strategic moves that disappointed and annoyed many hackers (especially by maintaining proprietary control of Java and rejecting Linux), it's still considered within the family in much the same way DEC was in the 1970s and early 1980s.

--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.

Sun (?), n. (Bot.)

See Sunn.

 

© Webster 1913


Sun (?), n. [OE. sunne, sonne, AS. sunne; akin to OFries. sunne, D. zon, OS. & OHG. sunna, G. sonne, Icel. sunna, Goth. sunna; perh. fr. same root as L. sol. √297. Cf. Solar, South.]

1.

The luminous orb, the light of which constitutes day, and its absence night; the central body round which the earth and planets revolve, by which they are held in their orbits, and from which they receive light and heat. Its mean distance from the earth is about 92,500,000 miles, and its diameter about 860,000.

⇒ Its mean apparent diameter as seen from the earth is 32′ 4″, and it revolves on its own axis once in 25⅓ days. Its mean density is about one fourth of that of the earth, or 1.41, that of water being unity. Its luminous surface is called the photosphere, above which is an envelope consisting partly of hydrogen, called the chromosphere, which can be seen only through the spectroscope, or at the time of a total solar eclipse. Above the chromosphere, and sometimes extending out millions of miles, are luminous rays or streams of light which are visible only at the time of a total eclipse, forming the solar corona.

2.

Any heavenly body which forms the center of a system of orbs.

3.

The direct light or warmth of the sun; sunshine.

Lambs that did frisk in the sun.
Shak.

4.

That which resembles the sun, as in splendor or importance; any source of light, warmth, or animation.

For the Lord God is a sun and shield.
Ps. lxxiv. 11.

I will never consent to put out the sun of sovereignity to posterity.
Eikon Basilike.

Sun and planet wheels (Mach.), an ingenious contrivance for converting reciprocating motion, as that of the working beam of a steam engine, into rotatory motion. It consists of a toothed wheel (called the sun wheel), firmly secured to the shaft it is desired to drive, and another wheel (called the planet wheel) secured to the end of a connecting rod. By the motion of the connecting rod, the planet wheel is made to circulate round the central wheel on the shaft, communicating to this latter a velocity of revolution the double of its own. G. Francis. --
Sun angel (Zoöl.), a South American humming bird of the genus Heliangelos, noted for its beautiful colors and the brilliant luster of the feathers of its throat. --
Sun animalcute. (Zoöl.) See Heliozoa. --
Sun bath (Med.), exposure of a patient to the sun's rays; insolation. --
Sun bear (Zoöl.), a species of bear (Helarctos Malayanus) native of Southern Asia and Borneo. It has a small head and short neck, and fine short glossy fur, mostly black, but brownish on the nose. It is easily tamed. Called also bruang, and Malayan bear. --
Sun beetle (Zoöl.), any small lustrous beetle of the genus Amara. --
Sun bittern (Zoöl.), a singular South American bird (Eurypyga helias), in some respects related both to the rails and herons. It is beautifully variegated with white, brown, and black. Called also sunbird, and tiger bittern. --
Sun fever (Med.), the condition of fever produced by sun stroke. --
Sun gem (Zoöl.), a Brazilian humming bird (Heliactin cornutus). Its head is ornamented by two tufts of bright colored feathers, fiery crimson at the base and greenish yellow at the tip. Called also Horned hummer. --
Sun grebe (Zoöl.), the finfoot. --
Sun picture, a picture taken by the agency of the sun's rays; a photograph. --
Sun spots (Astron.), dark spots that appear on the sun's disk, consisting commonly of a black central portion with a surrounding border of lighter shade, and usually seen only by the telescope, but sometimes by the naked eye. They are very changeable in their figure and dimensions, and vary in size from mere apparent points to spaces of 50,000 miles in diameter. The term sun spots is often used to include bright spaces (called faculæ) as well as dark spaces (called maculæ). Called also solar spots. See Illustration in Appendix. --
Sun star (Zoöl.), any one of several species of starfishes belonging to Solaster, Crossaster, and allied genera, having numerous rays. --
Sun trout (Zoöl.), the squeteague. --
Sun wheel. (Mach.) See Sun and planet wheels, above. --
Under the sun, in the world; on earth. "There is no new thing under the sun." Eccl. i. 9.

Sun is often used in the formation of compound adjectives of obvious meaning; as, sun-bright, sun- dried, sun-gilt, sunlike, sun-lit, sun- scorched, and the like.

 

© Webster 1913


Sun, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sunned (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Sunning.]

To expose to the sun's rays; to warm or dry in the sun; as, to sun cloth; to sun grain.

Then to sun thyself in open air.
Dryden.

 

© Webster 1913

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