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169-651: The storyline, which involves the Avengers intervening in an intergalactic war between the alien Kree and Shi'ar empires, is notable for reigniting the longstanding antagonism between Captain America and Iron Man and its impact upon the status quo for Marvel's alien empires, with the Shi'ar annexing the Kree Empire. The overarching plotline was devised by Mark Gruenwald , Bob Harras , and Fabian Nicieza , though each individual issue

338-424: A spacecraft must travel faster than a sub-orbital spaceflight along an arcing trajectory . The energy required to reach Earth orbital velocity at an altitude of 600 km (370 mi) is about 36  MJ /kg, which is six times the energy needed merely to climb to the corresponding altitude. The escape velocity required to pull free of Earth's gravitational field altogether and move into interplanetary space

507-623: A crucial schism in the team that would prevent them from following this path. In a more general sense, the implications and repercussions of the events depicted in the crossover have had a wide and continuing effect on many stories set in the Marvel Universe , most especially stories featuring the Kree, Shi'ar, and Skrull as the events of the crossover changed the status quo of each of those races to varying degrees. Many subsequent Avengers storylines feature attempts by surviving Kree to exact revenge on

676-471: A density of one proton per four cubic meters. The density of the universe is clearly not uniform; it ranges from relatively high density in galaxies—including very high density in structures within galaxies, such as planets, stars, and black holes —to conditions in vast voids that have much lower density, at least in terms of visible matter. Unlike matter and dark matter, dark energy seems not to be concentrated in galaxies: although dark energy may account for

845-561: A distance of one astronomical unit (AU) from the Sun (that is, at or near Earth's orbit). Sunlight on the surface of Earth is attenuated by Earth's atmosphere , so that less power arrives at the surface (closer to 1,000 W/m ) in clear conditions when the Sun is near the zenith . Sunlight at the top of Earth's atmosphere is composed (by total energy) of about 50% infrared light, 40% visible light, and 10% ultraviolet light. The atmosphere filters out over 70% of solar ultraviolet, especially at

1014-403: A fairly small amount of power being generated per cubic metre . Theoretical models of the Sun's interior indicate a maximum power density, or energy production, of approximately 276.5 watts per cubic metre at the center of the core, which, according to Karl Kruszelnicki , is about the same power density inside a compost pile . The fusion rate in the core is in a self-correcting equilibrium:

1183-414: A few millimeters. Re-emission happens in a random direction and usually at slightly lower energy. With this sequence of emissions and absorptions, it takes a long time for radiation to reach the Sun's surface. Estimates of the photon travel time range between 10,000 and 170,000 years. In contrast, it takes only 2.3 seconds for neutrinos , which account for about 2% of the total energy production of

1352-401: A granular appearance called the solar granulation at the smallest scale and supergranulation at larger scales. Turbulent convection in this outer part of the solar interior sustains "small-scale" dynamo action over the near-surface volume of the Sun. The Sun's thermal columns are Bénard cells and take the shape of roughly hexagonal prisms. The visible surface of the Sun, the photosphere,

1521-519: A hazard to astronauts, even in low Earth orbit. They create aurorae seen at high latitudes in an oval surrounding the geomagnetic poles . xGeo space is a concept used by the US to refer to space of high Earth orbits , ranging from beyond geosynchronous orbit (GEO) at approximately 35,786 km (22,236 mi), out to the L2 Earth-Moon Lagrange point at 448,900 km (278,934 mi). This

1690-507: A majority of the mass-energy in the universe, dark energy's influence is 5 orders of magnitude smaller than the influence of gravity from matter and dark matter within the Milky Way. Outer space is the closest known approximation to a perfect vacuum . It has effectively no friction , allowing stars, planets , and moons to move freely along their ideal orbits , following the initial formation stage. The deep vacuum of intergalactic space

1859-450: A new Kree empire. However, Earth's mightiest heroes would be able to liberate Earth and free it from Ego, denying them a major weapon. The original crossover: Aftermaths: Post Quasar #36 related stories: The storyline has been collected into two trade paperbacks as well as a volume in Marvel's "Epic Collection" line. Issues #55 and 56 in the second volume of What If ask "What If

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2028-502: A perigee as low as 80 to 90 km (50 to 56 mi), surviving for multiple orbits. At an altitude of 120 km (75 mi), descending spacecraft such as NASA 's Space Shuttle begin atmospheric entry (termed the Entry Interface), when atmospheric drag becomes noticeable, thus beginning the process of switching from steering with thrusters to maneuvering with aerodynamic control surfaces. The Kármán line , established by

2197-508: A period known as the Maunder minimum . This coincided in time with the era of the Little Ice Age , when Europe experienced unusually cold temperatures. Earlier extended minima have been discovered through analysis of tree rings and appear to have coincided with lower-than-average global temperatures. The temperature of the photosphere is approximately 6,000 K, whereas the temperature of

2366-485: A phenomenon described by Hale's law . During the solar cycle's declining phase, energy shifts from the internal toroidal magnetic field to the external poloidal field, and sunspots diminish in number and size. At solar-cycle minimum, the toroidal field is, correspondingly, at minimum strength, sunspots are relatively rare, and the poloidal field is at its maximum strength. With the rise of the next 11-year sunspot cycle, differential rotation shifts magnetic energy back from

2535-636: A practical boundary have been proposed, ranging from 30 km (19 mi) out to 1,600,000 km (990,000 mi). High-altitude aircraft , such as high-altitude balloons have reached altitudes above Earth of up to 50 km. Up until 2021, the United States designated people who travel above an altitude of 50 mi (80 km) as astronauts. Astronaut wings are now only awarded to spacecraft crew members that "demonstrated activities during flight that were essential to public safety, or contributed to human space flight safety." In 2009, measurements of

2704-473: A result, the outward-flowing solar wind stretches the interplanetary magnetic field outward, forcing it into a roughly radial structure. For a simple dipolar solar magnetic field, with opposite hemispherical polarities on either side of the solar magnetic equator, a thin current sheet is formed in the solar wind. At great distances, the rotation of the Sun twists the dipolar magnetic field and corresponding current sheet into an Archimedean spiral structure called

2873-481: A simulated Martian environment. The lithopanspermia hypothesis suggests that rocks ejected into outer space from life-harboring planets may successfully transport life forms to another habitable world. A conjecture is that just such a scenario occurred early in the history of the Solar System, with potentially microorganism -bearing rocks being exchanged between Venus, Earth, and Mars. The lack of pressure in space

3042-410: A slightly higher rate of fusion would cause the core to heat up more and expand slightly against the weight of the outer layers, reducing the density and hence the fusion rate and correcting the perturbation ; and a slightly lower rate would cause the core to cool and shrink slightly, increasing the density and increasing the fusion rate and again reverting it to its present rate. The radiative zone

3211-643: A spacecraft; similarly, " space-based " means based in outer space or on a planet or moon. The size of the whole universe is unknown, and it might be infinite in extent. According to the Big Bang theory, the very early universe was an extremely hot and dense state about 13.8 billion years ago which rapidly expanded . About 380,000 years later the universe had cooled sufficiently to allow protons and electrons to combine and form hydrogen—the so-called recombination epoch . When this happened, matter and energy became decoupled, allowing photons to travel freely through

3380-406: A transition layer, the tachocline . This is a region where the sharp regime change between the uniform rotation of the radiative zone and the differential rotation of the convection zone results in a large shear between the two—a condition where successive horizontal layers slide past one another. Presently, it is hypothesized that a magnetic dynamo, or solar dynamo , within this layer generates

3549-483: A truce or by diverting the two empires from using the nearby stargate. In Avengers #345 (March 1992) a gathering of over twenty Avengers is divided into three teams to deal with the threat. One of the teams stays on Earth to protect the planet for the duration of the conflict, while the other two are sent to the Shi'ar and Kree homeworlds via the Stargate to try to negotiate with the two empire's leaders. The "Earth team"

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3718-509: Is 1  astronomical unit ( 1.496 × 10  km ) or about 8 light-minutes away. Its diameter is about 1,391,400 km ( 864,600 mi ), 109 times that of Earth. Its mass is about 330,000 times that of Earth, making up about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System. Roughly three-quarters of the Sun's mass consists of hydrogen (~73%); the rest is mostly helium (~25%), with much smaller quantities of heavier elements, including oxygen , carbon , neon , and iron . The Sun

3887-494: Is a G-type main-sequence star (G2V), informally called a yellow dwarf , though its light is actually white. It formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of matter within a region of a large molecular cloud . Most of this matter gathered in the center, whereas the rest flattened into an orbiting disk that became the Solar System . The central mass became so hot and dense that it eventually initiated nuclear fusion in its core . Every second,

4056-423: Is a continuous stream of charged particles emanating from the Sun which creates a very tenuous atmosphere (the heliosphere ) for billions of kilometers into space. This wind has a particle density of 5–10 protons /cm and is moving at a velocity of 350–400 km/s (780,000–890,000 mph). Interplanetary space extends out to the heliopause where the influence of the galactic environment starts to dominate over

4225-492: Is about 11,200 m/s (40,300 km/h; 25,100 mph). Orbiting spacecraft with a perigee below about 2,000 km (1,200 mi) are subject to drag from the Earth's atmosphere, which decreases the orbital altitude. The rate of orbital decay depends on the satellite's cross-sectional area and mass, as well as variations in the air density of the upper atmosphere. At altitudes above 800 km (500 mi), orbital lifetime

4394-501: Is about five times the Moon's orbital distance , but which distance is also far less than the distance between Earth and any adjacent planet. Interplanetary space within the Solar System is the space between the eight planets, the space between the planets and the Sun, as well as that space beyond the orbit of the outermost planet Neptune where the solar wind remains active. The solar wind

4563-591: Is by far the brightest object in the Earth's sky , with an apparent magnitude of −26.74. This is about 13 billion times brighter than the next brightest star, Sirius , which has an apparent magnitude of −1.46. One astronomical unit (about 150 million kilometres; 93 million miles) is defined as the mean distance between the centres of the Sun and the Earth. The instantaneous distance varies by about ± 2.5 million km or 1.55 million miles as Earth moves from perihelion on ~ January 3rd to aphelion on ~ July 4th. At its average distance, light travels from

4732-457: Is co-populated by groups of co-orbital Near-Earth Objects (NEOs), such as horseshoe librators and Earth trojans , with some NEOs at times becoming temporary satellites and quasi-moons to Earth. Deep space is defined by the United States government as all of outer space which lies further from Earth than a typical low-Earth-orbit, thus assigning the Moon to deep-space. Other definitions vary

4901-529: Is conventionally used as the start of outer space in space treaties and for aerospace records keeping. Certain portions of the upper stratosphere and the mesosphere are sometimes referred to as "near space". The framework for international space law was established by the Outer Space Treaty , which entered into force on 10 October 1967. This treaty precludes any claims of national sovereignty and permits all states to freely explore outer space . Despite

5070-436: Is defined to begin at the distance where the flow of the solar wind becomes superalfvénic —that is, where the flow becomes faster than the speed of Alfvén waves, at approximately 20 solar radii ( 0.1 AU ). Turbulence and dynamic forces in the heliosphere cannot affect the shape of the solar corona within, because the information can only travel at the speed of Alfvén waves. The solar wind travels outward continuously through

5239-496: Is divided into overlapping regions of space. Near-Earth space is the region of space extending from low Earth orbits out to geostationary orbits . This region includes the major orbits for artificial satellites and is the site of most of humanity's space activity. The region has seen high levels of space debris, sometimes dubbed space pollution , threatening any space activity in this region. Some of this debris re-enters Earth's atmosphere periodically. Although it meets

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5408-402: Is facilitated by the full ionization of helium in the transition region, which significantly reduces radiative cooling of the plasma. The transition region does not occur at a well-defined altitude, but forms a kind of nimbus around chromospheric features such as spicules and filaments , and is in constant, chaotic motion. The transition region is not easily visible from Earth's surface, but

5577-438: Is free for all nation states to explore and is not subject to claims of national sovereignty, calling outer space the "province of all mankind". This status as a common heritage of mankind has been used, though not without opposition, to enforce the right to access and shared use of outer space for all nations equally, particularly non-spacefaring nations. It prohibits the deployment of nuclear weapons in outer space. The treaty

5746-646: Is led by the Wasp and includes the Falcon , Henry Pym , Gilgamesh , Mockingbird , She-Hulk , Spider-Woman , and U.S. Agent . Quasar , Her and Binary also remain in the Solar System to guard the stargates. The "Shi'ar Team" is led by Captain Marvel and includes the Living Lightning , the Scarlet Witch , Starfox , Thor , Vision , and Wonder Man . Finally, the "Kree Team" is led by Captain America and includes

5915-487: Is located beyond the orbit of the Moon and therefore includes cislunar space. Translunar space is the region of lunar transfer orbits , between the Moon and Earth. Cislunar space is a region outside of Earth that includes lunar orbits , the Moon's orbital space around Earth and the Lagrange points . The region where a body's gravitational potential remains dominant against gravitational potentials from other bodies,

6084-475: Is measured in centuries. Below about 300 km (190 mi), decay becomes more rapid with lifetimes measured in days. Once a satellite descends to 180 km (110 mi), it has only hours before it vaporizes in the atmosphere. Space in proximity to the Earth is physically similar to the remainder of interplanetary space, but is home to a multitude of Earth–orbiting satellites and has been subject to extensive studies. For identification purposes, this volume

6253-422: Is measured in terms of the kinetic activity of the gas, as it is on Earth. The radiation of outer space has a different temperature than the kinetic temperature of the gas, meaning that the gas and radiation are not in thermodynamic equilibrium . All of the observable universe is filled with photons that were created during the Big Bang, which is known as the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). (There

6422-449: Is not devoid of matter , as it contains a few hydrogen atoms per cubic meter. By comparison, the air humans breathe contains about 10 molecules per cubic meter. The low density of matter in outer space means that electromagnetic radiation can travel great distances without being scattered: the mean free path of a photon in intergalactic space is about 10  km, or 10 billion light years. In spite of this, extinction , which

6591-555: Is one of the story's few overt references to the original "Kree-Skrull War" storyline, as Barton appears as Goliath in that storyline as well (something which Barton and Pym comment on in the story). The Kree and Shi'ar Avengers teams go on to encounter the various factions (including their own super-powered teams, Starforce and the Imperial Guard , respectively) and are largely unsuccessful in engaging them in negotiations. Captain America's team are repeatedly captured and imprisoned by

6760-409: Is only 84% of what it was in the protostellar phase (before nuclear fusion in the core started). In the future, helium will continue to accumulate in the core, and in about 5 billion years this gradual build-up will eventually cause the Sun to exit the main sequence and become a red giant . The chemical composition of the photosphere is normally considered representative of the composition of

6929-551: Is quite likely a correspondingly large number of neutrinos called the cosmic neutrino background . ) The current black body temperature of the background radiation is about 2.7 K (−455 °F). The gas temperatures in outer space can vary widely. For example, the temperature in the Boomerang Nebula is 1 K (−458 °F), while the solar corona reaches temperatures over 1,200,000–2,600,000 K (2,200,000–4,700,000 °F). Magnetic fields have been detected in

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7098-441: Is readily observable from space by instruments sensitive to extreme ultraviolet . The corona is the next layer of the Sun. The low corona, near the surface of the Sun, has a particle density around 10  m to 10  m . The average temperature of the corona and solar wind is about 1,000,000–2,000,000 K; however, in the hottest regions it is 8,000,000–20,000,000 K. Although no complete theory yet exists to account for

7267-631: Is slowed by the pressure containment of blood vessels, so some blood remains liquid. Swelling and ebullism can be reduced by containment in a pressure suit . The Crew Altitude Protection Suit (CAPS), a fitted elastic garment designed in the 1960s for astronauts, prevents ebullism at pressures as low as 2 kilopascals (0.3 psi). Supplemental oxygen is needed at 8 km (5 mi) to provide enough oxygen for breathing and to prevent water loss, while above 20 km (12 mi) pressure suits are essential to prevent ebullism. Most space suits use around 30–39 kilopascals (4–6 psi) of pure oxygen, about

7436-410: Is strongly attenuated by Earth's ozone layer , so that the amount of UV varies greatly with latitude and has been partially responsible for many biological adaptations, including variations in human skin color . High-energy gamma ray photons initially released with fusion reactions in the core are almost immediately absorbed by the solar plasma of the radiative zone, usually after traveling only

7605-422: Is suggested by a high abundance of heavy elements in the Solar System, such as gold and uranium , relative to the abundances of these elements in so-called Population II , heavy-element-poor, stars. The heavy elements could most plausibly have been produced by endothermic nuclear reactions during a supernova, or by transmutation through neutron absorption within a massive second-generation star. The Sun

7774-470: Is tens to hundreds of kilometers thick, and is slightly less opaque than air on Earth. Because the upper part of the photosphere is cooler than the lower part, an image of the Sun appears brighter in the center than on the edge or limb of the solar disk, in a phenomenon known as limb darkening . The spectrum of sunlight has approximately the spectrum of a black-body radiating at 5,772 K (9,930 °F), interspersed with atomic absorption lines from

7943-538: Is the absorption and scattering of photons by dust and gas, is an important factor in galactic and intergalactic astronomy . Stars, planets, and moons retain their atmospheres by gravitational attraction. Atmospheres have no clearly delineated upper boundary: the density of atmospheric gas gradually decreases with distance from the object until it becomes indistinguishable from outer space. The Earth's atmospheric pressure drops to about 0.032 Pa at 100 kilometres (62 miles) of altitude, compared to 100,000 Pa for

8112-447: Is the body's sphere of influence or gravity well, mostly described with the Hill sphere model. In the case of Earth this includes all space from the Earth to a distance of roughly 1% of the mean distance from Earth to the Sun, or 1.5 million km (0.93 million mi). Beyond Earth's Hill sphere extends along Earth's orbital path its orbital and co-orbital space. This space

8281-437: Is the layer below which the Sun becomes opaque to visible light. Photons produced in this layer escape the Sun through the transparent solar atmosphere above it and become solar radiation, sunlight. The change in opacity is due to the decreasing amount of H ions , which absorb visible light easily. Conversely, the visible light perceived is produced as electrons react with hydrogen atoms to produce H ions. The photosphere

8450-504: Is the most immediate dangerous characteristic of space to humans. Pressure decreases above Earth, reaching a level at an altitude of around 19.14 km (11.89 mi) that matches the vapor pressure of water at the temperature of the human body . This pressure level is called the Armstrong line , named after American physician Harry G. Armstrong . At or above the Armstrong line, fluids in

8619-424: Is the most prominent variation in which the number and size of sunspots waxes and wanes. The solar magnetic field extends well beyond the Sun itself. The electrically conducting solar wind plasma carries the Sun's magnetic field into space, forming what is called the interplanetary magnetic field . In an approximation known as ideal magnetohydrodynamics , plasma particles only move along magnetic field lines. As

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8788-531: Is the only region of the Sun that produces an appreciable amount of thermal energy through fusion; 99% of the Sun's power is generated in the innermost 24% of its radius, and almost no fusion occurs beyond 30% of the radius. The rest of the Sun is heated by this energy as it is transferred outward through many successive layers, finally to the solar photosphere where it escapes into space through radiation (photons) or advection (massive particles). The proton–proton chain occurs around 9.2 × 10 times each second in

8957-420: Is the thickest layer of the Sun, at 0.45 solar radii. From the core out to about 0.7 solar radii , thermal radiation is the primary means of energy transfer. The temperature drops from approximately 7 million to 2 million kelvins with increasing distance from the core. This temperature gradient is less than the value of the adiabatic lapse rate and hence cannot drive convection, which explains why

9126-444: Is theorized to become a super dense black dwarf , giving off negligible energy. The English word sun developed from Old English sunne . Cognates appear in other Germanic languages , including West Frisian sinne , Dutch zon , Low German Sünn , Standard German Sonne , Bavarian Sunna , Old Norse sunna , and Gothic sunnō . All these words stem from Proto-Germanic * sunnōn . This

9295-527: Is ultimately related to the word for sun in other branches of the Indo-European language family, though in most cases a nominative stem with an l is found, rather than the genitive stem in n , as for example in Latin sōl , ancient Greek ἥλιος ( hēlios ), Welsh haul and Czech slunce , as well as (with *l > r ) Sanskrit स्वर् ( svár ) and Persian خور ( xvar ). Indeed,

9464-402: Is wave heating, in which sound, gravitational or magnetohydrodynamic waves are produced by turbulence in the convection zone. These waves travel upward and dissipate in the corona, depositing their energy in the ambient matter in the form of heat. The other is magnetic heating, in which magnetic energy is continuously built up by photospheric motion and released through magnetic reconnection in

9633-539: The Alfvén surface , the boundary separating the corona from the solar wind, defined as where the coronal plasma's Alfvén speed and the large-scale solar wind speed are equal. During the flyby, Parker Solar Probe passed into and out of the corona several times. This proved the predictions that the Alfvén critical surface is not shaped like a smooth ball, but has spikes and valleys that wrinkle its surface. The Sun emits light across

9802-554: The Andromeda Galaxy was first measured. Humans began the physical exploration of space later in the same century with the advent of high-altitude balloon flights . This was followed by crewed rocket flights and, then, crewed Earth orbit, first achieved by Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union in 1961. The economic cost of putting objects, including humans, into space is very high, limiting human spaceflight to low Earth orbit and

9971-501: The Black Knight , Crystal , Goliath , Hercules , Iron Man , and Sersi . In the story, U.S. Agent is originally assigned to the "Kree Team" and Hawkeye to the "Earth Team", but Clint Barton (Hawkeye's real identity) perceives this as a slight and is given some Pym Particles by Hank Pym so that he might increase his superhuman abilities (and thus qualify for inclusion on the "Kree Team") by re-assuming his Goliath identity. This

10140-467: The Bogotá Declaration , they claimed control of the segment of the geosynchronous orbital path corresponding to each country. These claims are not internationally accepted. An increasing issue of international space law and regulation has been the dangers of the growing number of space debris . A spacecraft enters orbit when its centripetal acceleration due to gravity is less than or equal to

10309-549: The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale , and used internationally by the United Nations , is set at an altitude of 100 km (62 mi) as a working definition for the boundary between aeronautics and astronautics. This line is named after Theodore von Kármán , who argued for an altitude where a vehicle would have to travel faster than orbital velocity to derive sufficient aerodynamic lift from

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10478-551: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) definition of standard pressure . Above this altitude, isotropic gas pressure rapidly becomes insignificant when compared to radiation pressure from the Sun and the dynamic pressure of the solar wind . The thermosphere in this range has large gradients of pressure, temperature and composition, and varies greatly due to space weather . The temperature of outer space

10647-443: The Moon . On the other hand, uncrewed spacecraft have reached all of the known planets in the Solar System . Outer space represents a challenging environment for human exploration because of the hazards of vacuum and radiation . Microgravity has a negative effect on human physiology that causes both muscle atrophy and bone loss . The use of the short version space , as meaning 'the region beyond Earth's sky', predates

10816-520: The Parker spiral . Sunspots are visible as dark patches on the Sun's photosphere and correspond to concentrations of magnetic field where convective transport of heat is inhibited from the solar interior to the surface. As a result, sunspots are slightly cooler than the surrounding photosphere, so they appear dark. At a typical solar minimum , few sunspots are visible, and occasionally none can be seen at all. Those that do appear are at high solar latitudes. As

10985-483: The X-Men titles where they had made their debut. The three creators mapped out the proposed storyline, which was further expanded at an "Avengers summit" when all the writers and editors whose series were involved in the crossover gathered together to further refine the plot. Creators who contributed to the storyline included writers Gruenwald, Harras, Tom DeFalco , Gerard Jones , Len Kaminski , and Roy Thomas (who wrote

11154-508: The background radiation from the Big Bang , is 2.7 kelvins (−270 °C; −455 °F). The plasma between galaxies is thought to account for about half of the baryonic (ordinary) matter in the universe, having a number density of less than one hydrogen atom per cubic metre and a kinetic temperature of millions of kelvins . Local concentrations of matter have condensed into stars and galaxies . Intergalactic space takes up most of

11323-471: The centrifugal acceleration due to the horizontal component of its velocity. For a low Earth orbit , this velocity is about 7,800 m/s (28,100 km/h; 17,400 mph); by contrast, the fastest piloted airplane speed ever achieved (excluding speeds achieved by deorbiting spacecraft) was 2,200 m/s (7,900 km/h; 4,900 mph) in 1967 by the North American X-15 . To achieve an orbit,

11492-410: The corona , and the heliosphere . The coolest layer of the Sun is a temperature minimum region extending to about 500 km above the photosphere, and has a temperature of about 4,100  K . This part of the Sun is cool enough to allow for the existence of simple molecules such as carbon monoxide and water. The chromosphere, transition region, and corona are much hotter than the surface of

11661-500: The cosmic microwave background using satellites like the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe . These observations indicate that the spatial geometry of the observable universe is " flat ", meaning that photons on parallel paths at one point remain parallel as they travel through space to the limit of the observable universe, except for local gravity. The flat universe, combined with the measured mass density of

11830-467: The immune system . Lesser symptoms include loss of body mass, nasal congestion, sleep disturbance, and puffiness of the face. During long-duration space travel, radiation can pose an acute health hazard . Exposure to high-energy, ionizing cosmic rays can result in fatigue, nausea, vomiting, as well as damage to the immune system and changes to the white blood cell count. Over longer durations, symptoms include an increased risk of cancer, plus damage to

11999-602: The l -stem survived in Proto-Germanic as well, as * sōwelan , which gave rise to Gothic sauil (alongside sunnō ) and Old Norse prosaic sól (alongside poetic sunna ), and through it the words for sun in the modern Scandinavian languages: Swedish and Danish sol , Icelandic sól , etc. The principal adjectives for the Sun in English are sunny for sunlight and, in technical contexts, solar ( / ˈ s oʊ l ər / ), from Latin sol . From

12168-428: The photosphere . For the purpose of measurement, the Sun's radius is considered to be the distance from its center to the edge of the photosphere, the apparent visible surface of the Sun. By this measure, the Sun is a near-perfect sphere with an oblateness estimated at 9 millionths, which means that its polar diameter differs from its equatorial diameter by only 10 kilometers (6.2 mi). The tidal effect of

12337-444: The visible spectrum , so its color is white , with a CIE color-space index near (0.3, 0.3), when viewed from space or when the Sun is high in the sky. The Solar radiance per wavelength peaks in the green portion of the spectrum when viewed from space. When the Sun is very low in the sky, atmospheric scattering renders the Sun yellow, red, orange, or magenta, and in rare occasions even green or blue . Some cultures mentally picture

12506-426: The zodiacal light . Interplanetary space contains the magnetic field generated by the Sun. There are magnetospheres generated by planets such as Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury and the Earth that have their own magnetic fields. These are shaped by the influence of the solar wind into the approximation of a teardrop shape, with the long tail extending outward behind the planet. These magnetic fields can trap particles from

12675-581: The Avengers Lost Operation: Galactic Storm?". Intergalactic space Outer space (or simply space ) is the expanse that exists beyond Earth's atmosphere and between celestial bodies . It contains ultra-low levels of particle densities , constituting a near-perfect vacuum of predominantly hydrogen and helium plasma , permeated by electromagnetic radiation , cosmic rays , neutrinos , magnetic fields and dust . The baseline temperature of outer space, as set by

12844-494: The Avengers team for their supposed role in the Nega-Bomb's detonation, more specifically Avengers #364-366 and the 1998 four-part Avengers crossover Live Kree or Die! . The former, would introduce Deathcry to the Avengers, a Shi'ar rebel who would be part of a secret movement that sought to help the Kree who were suffering under Shi'ar rule. Deathcry would ultimately leave the Avengers in Avengers #389, in order to help fight alongside

13013-421: The Earth's magnetosphere and the solar wind. The inner boundary is the ionosphere . The variable space-weather conditions of geospace are affected by the behavior of the Sun and the solar wind; the subject of geospace is interlinked with heliophysics —the study of the Sun and its impact on the planets of the Solar System. The day-side magnetopause is compressed by solar-wind pressure—the subsolar distance from

13182-644: The Galactic Council, a coalition of the universe's oldest planetary ruling powers, into turning Earth into a prison planet for alien criminals and briefly merge a spore of Ego the Living Planet with humanity's world, so as to turn Ego into a weapon for the Kree and eliminating the Terran threat to their plans. Revealing their true identities, the Kree launched a galaxy-wide invasion of all of the major rival empires, reclaiming much of their lost territories and establishing

13351-461: The Greek helios comes the rare adjective heliac ( / ˈ h iː l i æ k / ). In English, the Greek and Latin words occur in poetry as personifications of the Sun, Helios ( / ˈ h iː l i ə s / ) and Sol ( / ˈ s ɒ l / ), while in science fiction Sol may be used to distinguish the Sun from other stars. The term sol with a lowercase s is used by planetary astronomers for

13520-654: The Kree Empire (which is supposedly located throughout the Large Magellanic Cloud ). Also during the conflict, the Kree's military leaders are assassinated by the Shi'ar agent Deathbird , the Supreme Intelligence regains (temporary) control of the Kree forces, and Skrull agents are revealed to be surreptitiously manipulating the court of the Shi'ar Majestrix Lilandra into escalating the conflict. Eventually, Captain Marvel's Avengers delegation manages to convince Lilandra to try to begin peace negotiations with

13689-492: The Kree Supreme Intelligence. This creature, an amalgam of the consciousness of thousands of generations of Kree military leaders, calculated that the bomb's radioactive effects would serve to jumpstart the Kree race's evolution which had previously been thought stalled. Horrified by this revelation, and faced with the problem with what to do now with the captured Supreme Intelligence, a group of Avengers decides that

13858-447: The Kree authorities while Captain Marvel's team engages in a number of short battles with various Shi'ar forces. During the course of these encounters it is revealed that the Shi'ar has managed to create a massive super weapon—the "Nega-Bomb"— using Kree artifacts including the original Captain Marvel 's Nega-Bands which has been stolen from the dead hero's tomb. This bomb is capable of devastating an area equivalent to that of

14027-576: The Kree. The crossover event "Maximum Security" and its prequel, "Avengers Forever" would ultimately restore the Kree Empire to its former glory. Using the Time Crystal acquired in "Avengers Forever", the Supreme Intelligence would rapidly evolve the Kree to a new monstrous form known as the Ruul. Pretending to be a newly discovered species, the Ruul would reveal themselves to be the Kree. They manipulate

14196-513: The Kree. However, by this point, the Nega-Bomb has been stolen by Skrull agents and her efforts to recall the weapon fail. Despite the presence of Avengers members Wonder Man and the Vision in the Nega-Bomb's massive interior, the device is successfully detonated in Wonder Man #9 (May 1992). The Kree Empire is devastated by its effects, with billions dying instantaneously. In Avengers #347 (May 1992)

14365-512: The Nega-Bomb explosion and the sudden death of billions of lifeforms and the collapse of a major space empire. Other comics which tie directly into the events of "Operation Galactic Storm" include Silver Surfer (vol. 2) #79 (April 1993) which features the return of two Kree characters, Doctor Minerva and Captain Atlas , who are thought to have died at the conclusion of "Operation: Galactic Storm"; and X-Men Unlimited #5 (June 1994) which features

14534-401: The Shi'ar's formal ceremonies of the annexation of the Kree Empire into the Shi'ar empire, likewise Avengers Forever #8 (July 1997), features how the events of the crossover may lead (and led at least in one timeline) the Avengers to become a paramilitary group that controls a vast and repressive interstellar empire, Iron Man's actions at the time having been provoked by Immortus to create

14703-446: The Solar System . Long-term secular change in sunspot number is thought, by some scientists, to be correlated with long-term change in solar irradiance, which, in turn, might influence Earth's long-term climate. The solar cycle influences space weather conditions, including those surrounding Earth. For example, in the 17th century, the solar cycle appeared to have stopped entirely for several decades; few sunspots were observed during

14872-443: The Sun as yellow and some even red; the cultural reasons for this are debated. The Sun is classed as a G2 star, meaning it is a G-type star , with 2 indicating its surface temperature is in the second range of the G class. The solar constant is the amount of power that the Sun deposits per unit area that is directly exposed to sunlight. The solar constant is equal to approximately 1,368 W/m (watts per square meter) at

15041-424: The Sun extends from the center to about 20–25% of the solar radius. It has a density of up to 150 g/cm (about 150 times the density of water) and a temperature of close to 15.7 million kelvin (K). By contrast, the Sun's surface temperature is about 5800 K . Recent analysis of SOHO mission data favors the idea that the core is rotating faster than the radiative zone outside it. Through most of

15210-438: The Sun into a red giant . This process will make the Sun large enough to render Earth uninhabitable approximately five billion years from the present. After the red giant phase, models suggest the Sun will shed its outer layers and become a dense type of cooling star (a white dwarf ), and no longer produce energy by fusion, but will still glow and give off heat from its previous fusion for perhaps trillions of years. After that, it

15379-413: The Sun's magnetic field . The Sun's convection zone extends from 0.7 solar radii (500,000 km) to near the surface. In this layer, the solar plasma is not dense or hot enough to transfer the heat energy of the interior outward via radiation. Instead, the density of the plasma is low enough to allow convective currents to develop and move the Sun's energy outward towards its surface. Material heated at

15548-398: The Sun's core by radiation rather than by convection (see Radiative zone below), so the fusion products are not lifted outward by heat; they remain in the core, and gradually an inner core of helium has begun to form that cannot be fused because presently the Sun's core is not hot or dense enough to fuse helium. In the current photosphere, the helium fraction is reduced, and the metallicity

15717-437: The Sun's core fuses about 600 billion kilograms (kg) of hydrogen into helium and converts 4 billion kg of matter into energy . About 4 to 7 billion years from now, when hydrogen fusion in the Sun's core diminishes to the point where the Sun is no longer in hydrostatic equilibrium , its core will undergo a marked increase in density and temperature which will cause its outer layers to expand, eventually transforming

15886-403: The Sun's horizon to Earth's horizon in about 8 minutes and 20 seconds, while light from the closest points of the Sun and Earth takes about two seconds less. The energy of this sunlight supports almost all life on Earth by photosynthesis , and drives Earth's climate and weather. The Sun does not have a definite boundary, but its density decreases exponentially with increasing height above

16055-493: The Sun's life, energy has been produced by nuclear fusion in the core region through the proton–proton chain ; this process converts hydrogen into helium. Currently, 0.8% of the energy generated in the Sun comes from another sequence of fusion reactions called the CNO cycle ; the proportion coming from the CNO cycle is expected to increase as the Sun becomes older and more luminous. The core

16224-551: The Sun's life, they account for 74.9% and 23.8%, respectively, of the mass of the Sun in the photosphere. All heavier elements, called metals in astronomy, account for less than 2% of the mass, with oxygen (roughly 1% of the Sun's mass), carbon (0.3%), neon (0.2%), and iron (0.2%) being the most abundant. The Sun's original chemical composition was inherited from the interstellar medium out of which it formed. Originally it would have been about 71.1% hydrogen, 27.4% helium, and 1.5% heavier elements. The hydrogen and most of

16393-438: The Sun, to reach the surface. Because energy transport in the Sun is a process that involves photons in thermodynamic equilibrium with matter , the time scale of energy transport in the Sun is longer, on the order of 30,000,000 years. This is the time it would take the Sun to return to a stable state if the rate of energy generation in its core were suddenly changed. Electron neutrinos are released by fusion reactions in

16562-452: The Sun. It is the space between the stars or stellar systems within a nebula or galaxy. Interstellar space contains an interstellar medium of sparse matter and radiation. The boundary between an astrosphere and interstellar space is known as an astropause . For the Sun, the astrosphere and astropause are called the heliosphere and heliopause. Approximately 70% of the mass of the interstellar medium consists of lone hydrogen atoms; most of

16731-402: The Sun. The reason is not well understood, but evidence suggests that Alfvén waves may have enough energy to heat the corona. Above the temperature minimum layer is a layer about 2,000 km thick, dominated by a spectrum of emission and absorption lines. It is called the chromosphere from the Greek root chroma , meaning color, because the chromosphere is visible as a colored flash at

16900-540: The Supreme Intelligence should be killed for its act of genocide. Disagreeing with this idea completely, Captain America holds a vote, and when a majority of Avengers agree that killing the Intelligence is not appropriate, he orders that no Avenger should kill the creature. Iron Man refuses to follow this order (invoking his seniority as a founding member), and he and the other dissenting Avengers- Black Knight, Hercules, Sersi, Thor, Vision, and Wonder Man attempt to terminate

17069-732: The atmosphere to support itself, which he calculated to be at an altitude of about 83.8 km (52.1 mi). This distinguishes altitudes below as the region of aerodynamics and airspace , and above as the space of astronautics and free space . There is no internationally recognized legal altitude limit on national airspace, although the Kármán line is the most frequently used for this purpose. Objections have been made to setting this limit too high, as it could inhibit space activities due to concerns about airspace violations. It has been argued for setting no specified singular altitude in international law, instead applying different limits depending on

17238-486: The beginning and end of total solar eclipses. The temperature of the chromosphere increases gradually with altitude, ranging up to around 20,000 K near the top. In the upper part of the chromosphere helium becomes partially ionized . Above the chromosphere, in a thin (about 200 km ) transition region, the temperature rises rapidly from around 20,000 K in the upper chromosphere to coronal temperatures closer to 1,000,000 K . The temperature increase

17407-498: The blood empties into the lungs to try to equalize the partial pressure gradient. Once the deoxygenated blood arrives at the brain, humans lose consciousness after a few seconds and die of hypoxia within minutes. Blood and other body fluids boil when the pressure drops below 6.3 kilopascals (1 psi), and this condition is called ebullism . The steam may bloat the body to twice its normal size and slow circulation, but tissues are elastic and porous enough to prevent rupture. Ebullism

17576-399: The body adjusts to the new environment. Longer-term exposure to weightlessness results in muscle atrophy and deterioration of the skeleton, or spaceflight osteopenia . These effects can be minimized through a regimen of exercise. Other effects include fluid redistribution, slowing of the cardiovascular system , decreased production of red blood cells , balance disorders, and a weakening of

17745-500: The case, in particular based on the craft and its purpose. Spacecraft have flown over foreign countries as low as 30 km (19 mi), as in the example of the Space Shuttle. The Outer Space Treaty provides the basic framework for international space law. It covers the legal use of outer space by nation states, and includes in its definition of outer space , the Moon, and other celestial bodies. The treaty states that outer space

17914-414: The center of the Earth is typically 10 Earth radii. On the night side, the solar wind stretches the magnetosphere to form a magnetotail that sometimes extends out to more than 100–200 Earth radii. For roughly four days of each month, the lunar surface is shielded from the solar wind as the Moon passes through the magnetotail. Geospace is populated by electrically charged particles at very low densities,

18083-447: The continually expanding space. Matter that remained following the initial expansion has since undergone gravitational collapse to create stars, galaxies and other astronomical objects, leaving behind a deep vacuum that forms what is now called outer space. As light has a finite velocity, this theory constrains the size of the directly observable universe. The present day shape of the universe has been determined from measurements of

18252-460: The core, but, unlike photons, they rarely interact with matter, so almost all are able to escape the Sun immediately. However, measurements of the number of these neutrinos produced in the Sun are lower than theories predict by a factor of 3. In 2001, the discovery of neutrino oscillation resolved the discrepancy: the Sun emits the number of electron neutrinos predicted by the theory, but neutrino detectors were missing 2 ⁄ 3 of them because

18421-495: The core, converting about 3.7 × 10 protons into alpha particles (helium nuclei) every second (out of a total of ~8.9 × 10 free protons in the Sun), or about 6.2 × 10  kg/s . However, each proton (on average) takes around 9 billion years to fuse with another using the PP chain. Fusing four free protons (hydrogen nuclei) into a single alpha particle (helium nucleus) releases around 0.7% of

18590-401: The corona reaches 1,000,000–2,000,000 K . The high temperature of the corona shows that it is heated by something other than direct heat conduction from the photosphere. It is thought that the energy necessary to heat the corona is provided by turbulent motion in the convection zone below the photosphere, and two main mechanisms have been proposed to explain coronal heating. The first

18759-406: The cosmic rays upon the shielding produces additional radiation that can affect the crew. Further research is needed to assess the radiation hazards and determine suitable countermeasures. The transition between Earth's atmosphere and outer space lacks a well-defined physical boundary, with the air pressure steadily decreasing with altitude until it mixes with the solar wind. Various definitions for

18928-433: The course of rescuing Jones, Captain America discovers that a conflict has begun between the alien Kree and Shi'ar empires. In Quasar #32 (March 1992) Captain America's fellow Avenger Quasar discovers that the use of a nearby stargate by the warring factions is destabilizing Earth's Sun . The Avengers gather and resolve to intervene in the conflict to try to ensure the safety of their solar system either by bringing about

19097-459: The creature, apparently succeeding. A Shi'ar delegation then appears and announces that they will annex the devastated Kree Empire, with Lilandra's sister Deathbird becoming viceroy of the Kree territories. The Avengers return to Earth divided and disillusioned by the events of the storyline, and the consciousness of the Supreme Intelligence is shown to have survived and escaped to a waiting spaceship crewed by Skrulls. The immediate aftermath of

19266-450: The definition of outer space, the atmospheric density inside low-Earth orbital space, the first few hundred kilometers above the Kármán line, is still sufficient to produce significant drag on satellites. Geospace is a region of space that includes Earth's upper atmosphere and magnetosphere . The Van Allen radiation belts lie within the geospace. The outer boundary of geospace is the magnetopause , which forms an interface between

19435-422: The direction and speed of ions in the atmosphere were made from a sounding rocket . The altitude of 118 km (73.3 mi) above Earth was the midpoint for charged particles transitioning from the gentle winds of the Earth's atmosphere to the more extreme flows of outer space. The latter can reach velocities well over 268 m/s (880 ft/s). Spacecraft have entered into a highly elliptical orbit with

19604-452: The drafting of UN resolutions for the peaceful uses of outer space, anti-satellite weapons have been tested in Earth orbit . The concept that the space between the Earth and the Moon must be a vacuum was first proposed in the 17th century after scientists discovered that air pressure decreased with altitude. The immense scale of outer space was grasped in the 20th century when the distance to

19773-400: The duration of a solar day on another planet such as Mars . The astronomical symbol for the Sun is a circle with a center dot, [REDACTED] . It is used for such units as M ☉ ( Solar mass ), R ☉ ( Solar radius ) and L ☉ ( Solar luminosity ). The scientific study of the Sun is called heliology . The Sun is a G-type main-sequence star that makes up about 99.86% of

19942-484: The energy from its surface mainly as visible light and infrared radiation with 10% at ultraviolet energies. It is by far the most important source of energy for life on Earth . The Sun has been an object of veneration in many cultures. It has been a central subject for astronomical research since antiquity . The Sun orbits the Galactic Center at a distance of 24,000 to 28,000 light-years . From Earth, it

20111-563: The external poloidal dipolar magnetic field is near its dynamo-cycle minimum strength; but an internal toroidal quadrupolar field, generated through differential rotation within the tachocline, is near its maximum strength. At this point in the dynamo cycle, buoyant upwelling within the convective zone forces emergence of the toroidal magnetic field through the photosphere, giving rise to pairs of sunspots, roughly aligned east–west and having footprints with opposite magnetic polarities. The magnetic polarity of sunspot pairs alternates every solar cycle,

20280-436: The eyes, nervous system , lungs and the gastrointestinal tract . On a round-trip Mars mission lasting three years, a large fraction of the cells in an astronaut's body would be traversed and potentially damaged by high energy nuclei. The energy of such particles is significantly diminished by the shielding provided by the walls of a spacecraft and can be further diminished by water containers and other barriers. The impact of

20449-404: The fused mass as energy, so the Sun releases energy at the mass–energy conversion rate of 4.26 billion kg/s (which requires 600 billion kg of hydrogen ), for 384.6  yottawatts ( 3.846 × 10  W ), or 9.192 × 10   megatons of TNT per second. The large power output of the Sun is mainly due to the huge size and density of its core (compared to Earth and objects on Earth), with only

20618-479: The harsh environment, several life forms have been found that can withstand extreme space conditions for extended periods. Species of lichen carried on the ESA BIOPAN facility survived exposure for ten days in 2007. Seeds of Arabidopsis thaliana and Nicotiana tabacum germinated after being exposed to space for 1.5 years. A strain of Bacillus subtilis has survived 559 days when exposed to low Earth orbit or

20787-477: The heliosphere, forming the solar magnetic field into a spiral shape, until it impacts the heliopause more than 50 AU from the Sun. In December 2004, the Voyager 1 probe passed through a shock front that is thought to be part of the heliopause. In late 2012, Voyager 1 recorded a marked increase in cosmic ray collisions and a sharp drop in lower energy particles from the solar wind, which suggested that

20956-432: The helium in the Sun would have been produced by Big Bang nucleosynthesis in the first 20 minutes of the universe, and the heavier elements were produced by previous generations of stars before the Sun was formed, and spread into the interstellar medium during the final stages of stellar life and by events such as supernovae . Since the Sun formed, the main fusion process has involved fusing hydrogen into helium. Over

21125-596: The high energy range, the flux of electrons is only about 1% of that of protons. Cosmic rays can damage electronic components and pose a health threat to space travelers. Smells produced returning from low Earth orbit extravehicular activity have a burned/metallic odor, similar to the scent of arc welding fumes, resulting from oxygen in low Earth orbit around the ISS, which clings to suits and equipment. Other regions of space could have very different smells, like that of different alcohols in molecular clouds . Despite

21294-610: The international co-operation in the peaceful uses of outer space and preventing an arms race in space. Four additional space law treaties have been negotiated and drafted by the UN's Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space . Still, there remains no legal prohibition against deploying conventional weapons in space, and anti-satellite weapons have been successfully tested by the USA, USSR, China, and in 2019, India. The 1979 Moon Treaty turned

21463-484: The interstellar medium, including the heavy elements previously formed within the star's core. The density of matter in the interstellar medium can vary considerably: the average is around 10 particles per m , but cold molecular clouds can hold 10 –10 per m . Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System . It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma , heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating

21632-588: The jurisdiction of all heavenly bodies (including the orbits around such bodies) over to the international community. The treaty has not been ratified by any nation that currently practices human spaceflight. In 1976, eight equatorial states (Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, The Republic of the Congo, Zaire, Uganda, Kenya, and Indonesia) met in Bogotá, Colombia: with their "Declaration of the First Meeting of Equatorial Countries", or

21801-442: The large pressure differential between inside and outside the chest. Even if the subject's airway is fully open, the flow of air through the windpipe may be too slow to prevent the rupture. Rapid decompression can rupture eardrums and sinuses, bruising and blood seep can occur in soft tissues, and shock can cause an increase in oxygen consumption that leads to hypoxia . As a consequence of rapid decompression, oxygen dissolved in

21970-404: The magnetic field and particle flux from the Sun. The distance and strength of the heliopause varies depending on the activity level of the solar wind. The heliopause in turn deflects away low-energy galactic cosmic rays, with this modulation effect peaking during solar maximum. The volume of interplanetary space is a nearly total vacuum, with a mean free path of about one astronomical unit at

22139-500: The mass of the Solar System. It has an absolute magnitude of +4.83, estimated to be brighter than about 85% of the stars in the Milky Way , most of which are red dwarfs . It is more massive than 95% of the stars within 7 pc (23 ly). The Sun is a Population I , or heavy-element-rich, star. Its formation approximately 4.6 billion years ago may have been triggered by shockwaves from one or more nearby supernovae . This

22308-483: The middle of a cosmic war waged between two alien empires - this time the Kree and the Shi'ar (rather than the Kree/ Skrull conflict featured in its predecessor) - because that war endangers the safety of the planet Earth . Mark Gruenwald has discussed the origins of the storyline as a Quasar story which was expanded when he (then Marvel's executive editor and writer of Captain America and Quasar ), Bob Harras (at

22477-518: The most distant high-z sources, indicating the presence of magnetic fields. Outside a protective atmosphere and magnetic field, there are few obstacles to the passage through space of energetic subatomic particles known as cosmic rays. These particles have energies ranging from about 10   eV up to an extreme 10  eV of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays . The peak flux of cosmic rays occurs at energies of about 10  eV, with approximately 87% protons, 12% helium nuclei and 1% heavier nuclei. In

22646-525: The motions of which are controlled by the Earth's magnetic field . These plasmas form a medium from which storm-like disturbances powered by the solar wind can drive electrical currents into the Earth's upper atmosphere. Geomagnetic storms can disturb two regions of geospace, the radiation belts and the ionosphere. These storms increase fluxes of energetic electrons that can permanently damage satellite electronics, interfering with shortwave radio communication and GPS location and timing. Magnetic storms can be

22815-444: The neutrinos had changed flavor by the time they were detected. The Sun has a stellar magnetic field that varies across its surface. Its polar field is 1–2 gauss (0.0001–0.0002  T ), whereas the field is typically 3,000 gauss (0.3 T) in features on the Sun called sunspots and 10–100 gauss (0.001–0.01 T) in solar prominences . The magnetic field varies in time and location. The quasi-periodic 11-year solar cycle

22984-403: The orbital distance of the Earth. This space is not completely empty, and is sparsely filled with cosmic rays, which include ionized atomic nuclei and various subatomic particles. There is gas, plasma and dust, small meteors , and several dozen types of organic molecules discovered to date by microwave spectroscopy . A cloud of interplanetary dust is visible at night as a faint band called

23153-516: The original Kree-Skrull War storyline); pencillers Greg Capullo , Steve Epting , Ron Frenz , Jeff Johnson , Rik Levins , Pat Olliffe , David Ross , and Paul Ryan ; and editors Nicieza, Ralph Macchio , Nel Yomtov , and Kelly Corvese . The storyline was tightly plotted so that each issue was supposed to carry the story forward in some way. Each character's characterization was kept largely consistent with their portrayals from their ongoing titles and long developing themes and storylines (such as

23322-419: The past 4.6 billion years, the amount of helium and its location within the Sun has gradually changed. The proportion of helium within the core has increased from about 24% to about 60% due to fusion, and some of the helium and heavy elements have settled from the photosphere toward the center of the Sun because of gravity . The proportions of heavier elements are unchanged. Heat is transferred outward from

23491-414: The photospheric surface. Both coronal mass ejections and high-speed streams of solar wind carry plasma and the interplanetary magnetic field outward into the Solar System. The effects of solar activity on Earth include auroras at moderate to high latitudes and the disruption of radio communications and electric power . Solar activity is thought to have played a large role in the formation and evolution of

23660-450: The planets is weak and does not significantly affect the shape of the Sun. The Sun rotates faster at its equator than at its poles . This differential rotation is caused by convective motion due to heat transport and the Coriolis force due to the Sun's rotation. In a frame of reference defined by the stars, the rotational period is approximately 25.6 days at the equator and 33.5 days at

23829-467: The plot bears no real relation to the Gulf conflict and was apparently not intended to have any overt parallels with it, save the obvious fact that "Operation: Galactic Storm" also involved a major conflict. In fact, the crossover was in many ways a sequel to a previous Avengers story - the 1971/1972 " Kree-Skrull War ". Like the previous story, "Operation: Galactic Storm" features the Avengers getting caught in

23998-473: The poles. Viewed from Earth as it orbits the Sun, the apparent rotational period of the Sun at its equator is about 28 days. Viewed from a vantage point above its north pole, the Sun rotates counterclockwise around its axis of spin. A survey of solar analogs suggest the early Sun was rotating up to ten times faster than it does today. This would have made the surface much more active, with greater X-ray and UV emission. Sun spots would have covered 5–30% of

24167-557: The poloidal to the toroidal field, but with a polarity that is opposite to the previous cycle. The process carries on continuously, and in an idealized, simplified scenario, each 11-year sunspot cycle corresponds to a change, then, in the overall polarity of the Sun's large-scale magnetic field. The Sun's magnetic field leads to many effects that are collectively called solar activity . Solar flares and coronal mass ejections tend to occur at sunspot groups. Slowly changing high-speed streams of solar wind are emitted from coronal holes at

24336-448: The primordial Solar System. Typically, the solar heavy-element abundances described above are measured both by using spectroscopy of the Sun's photosphere and by measuring abundances in meteorites that have never been heated to melting temperatures. These meteorites are thought to retain the composition of the protostellar Sun and are thus not affected by the settling of heavy elements. The two methods generally agree well. The core of

24505-470: The probe had passed through the heliopause and entered the interstellar medium , and indeed did so on August 25, 2012, at approximately 122 astronomical units (18 Tm) from the Sun. The heliosphere has a heliotail which stretches out behind it due to the Sun's peculiar motion through the galaxy. On April 28, 2021, NASA's Parker Solar Probe encountered the specific magnetic and particle conditions at 18.8 solar radii that indicated that it penetrated

24674-439: The remainder consists of helium atoms. This is enriched with trace amounts of heavier atoms formed through stellar nucleosynthesis . These atoms are ejected into the interstellar medium by stellar winds or when evolved stars begin to shed their outer envelopes such as during the formation of a planetary nebula . The cataclysmic explosion of a supernova propagates shock waves of stellar ejecta outward, distributing it throughout

24843-640: The same as the partial pressure of oxygen at the Earth's surface. This pressure is high enough to prevent ebullism, but evaporation of nitrogen dissolved in the blood could still cause decompression sickness and gas embolisms if not managed. Humans evolved for life in Earth gravity , and exposure to weightlessness has been shown to have deleterious effects on human health. Initially, more than 50% of astronauts experience space motion sickness . This can cause nausea and vomiting, vertigo , headaches, lethargy , and overall malaise. The duration of space sickness varies, but it typically lasts for 1–3 days, after which

25012-437: The shorter wavelengths. Solar ultraviolet radiation ionizes Earth's dayside upper atmosphere, creating the electrically conducting ionosphere . Ultraviolet light from the Sun has antiseptic properties and can be used to sanitize tools and water. This radiation causes sunburn , and has other biological effects such as the production of vitamin D and sun tanning . It is the main cause of skin cancer . Ultraviolet light

25181-425: The solar cycle progresses toward its maximum , sunspots tend to form closer to the solar equator, a phenomenon known as Spörer's law . The largest sunspots can be tens of thousands of kilometers across. An 11-year sunspot cycle is half of a 22-year Babcock –Leighton dynamo cycle, which corresponds to an oscillatory exchange of energy between toroidal and poloidal solar magnetic fields. At solar-cycle maximum,

25350-468: The solar wind and other sources, creating belts of charged particles such as the Van Allen radiation belts. Planets without magnetic fields, such as Mars, have their atmospheres gradually eroded by the solar wind. Interstellar space is the physical space outside of the bubbles of plasma known as astrospheres , formed by stellar winds originating from individual stars, or formed by solar wind emanating from

25519-625: The space around just about every class of celestial object. Star formation in spiral galaxies can generate small-scale dynamos , creating turbulent magnetic field strengths of around 5–10 μ G . The Davis–Greenstein effect causes elongated dust grains to align themselves with a galaxy's magnetic field, resulting in weak optical polarization . This has been used to show ordered magnetic fields that exist in several nearby galaxies. Magneto-hydrodynamic processes in active elliptical galaxies produce their characteristic jets and radio lobes . Non-thermal radio sources have been detected even among

25688-409: The starting point of deep-space from, "That which lies beyond the orbit of the moon," to "That which lies beyond the farthest reaches of the Solar System itself." The International Telecommunication Union responsible for radio communication , including with satellites, defines deep-space as, "distances from the Earth equal to, or greater than, 2 million km (1.2 million mi)," which

25857-457: The storyline is explored in the Captain America and Quasar titles. Captain America #401 (June 1992) examines the effects of the conflict on Captain America, such as his disappointment in those teammates who disobeyed his orders and in the Avengers group as a whole. Quasar #35 and #36 (June - July 1992) explores the larger repercussions of the storyline: the effect on the wider cosmos of

26026-403: The strained relationship between Captain America and Iron Man following the " Armor Wars ", the Avengers strict "no killing" rule, the Kree's genetic problems, etc.) were updated and further developed. The plot begins in Captain America #398 (March 1992) with the kidnapping of Rick Jones by Shi'ar agents intent on recovering Kree artifacts to aid them in the construction of a superweapon. In

26195-417: The surface. The rotation rate was gradually slowed by magnetic braking , as the Sun's magnetic field interacted with the outflowing solar wind. A vestige of this rapid primordial rotation still survives at the Sun's core, which has been found to be rotating at a rate of once per week; four times the mean surface rotation rate. The Sun consists mainly of the elements hydrogen and helium . At this time in

26364-431: The tachocline picks up heat and expands, thereby reducing its density and allowing it to rise. As a result, an orderly motion of the mass develops into thermal cells that carry most of the heat outward to the Sun's photosphere above. Once the material diffusively and radiatively cools just beneath the photospheric surface, its density increases, and it sinks to the base of the convection zone, where it again picks up heat from

26533-424: The temperature of the corona, at least some of its heat is known to be from magnetic reconnection . The corona is the extended atmosphere of the Sun, which has a volume much larger than the volume enclosed by the Sun's photosphere. A flow of plasma outward from the Sun into interplanetary space is the solar wind . The heliosphere, the tenuous outermost atmosphere of the Sun, is filled with solar wind plasma and

26702-422: The tenuous layers above the photosphere. The photosphere has a particle density of ~10  m (about 0.37% of the particle number per volume of Earth's atmosphere at sea level). The photosphere is not fully ionized—the extent of ionization is about 3%, leaving almost all of the hydrogen in atomic form. The Sun's atmosphere is composed of five layers: the photosphere, the chromosphere , the transition region ,

26871-407: The throat and lungs boil away. More specifically, exposed bodily liquids such as saliva, tears, and liquids in the lungs boil away. Hence, at this altitude, human survival requires a pressure suit, or a pressurized capsule. Out in space, sudden exposure of an unprotected human to very low pressure , such as during a rapid decompression, can cause pulmonary barotrauma —a rupture of the lungs, due to

27040-512: The time the Avengers writer and the X-Men line's editor), and Fabian Nicieza (then editor of Wonder Man and a writer of numerous non-Avengers books) were looking for an appropriate plot for a proposed Avengers crossover. Harras's role was instrumental in approving the story. As the X-Men editor, he could authorize the extensive use of the Shi'ar, a race which until then had rarely appeared outside of

27209-404: The top of the radiative zone and the convective cycle continues. At the photosphere, the temperature has dropped 350-fold to 5,700 K (9,800 °F) and the density to only 0.2 g/m (about 1/10,000 the density of air at sea level, and 1 millionth that of the inner layer of the convective zone). The thermal columns of the convection zone form an imprint on the surface of the Sun giving it

27378-418: The transfer of energy through this zone is by radiation instead of thermal convection. Ions of hydrogen and helium emit photons, which travel only a brief distance before being reabsorbed by other ions. The density drops a hundredfold (from 20 000 kg/m to 200 kg/m ) between 0.25 solar radii and 0.7 radii, the top of the radiative zone. The radiative zone and the convective zone are separated by

27547-427: The universe and the accelerating expansion of the universe , indicates that space has a non-zero vacuum energy , which is called dark energy . Estimates put the average energy density of the present day universe at the equivalent of 5.9 protons per cubic meter, including dark energy, dark matter, and baryonic matter (ordinary matter composed of atoms). The atoms account for only 4.6% of the total energy density, or

27716-428: The use of full term "outer space", with the earliest recorded use of this meaning in an epic poem by John Milton called Paradise Lost , published in 1667. The term outward space existed in a poem from 1842 by the English poet Lady Emmeline Stuart-Wortley called "The Maiden of Moscow", but in astronomy the term outer space found its application for the first time in 1845 by Alexander von Humboldt . The term

27885-443: The various Avengers (all of whom manage to survive the bomb's effects; the Vision turned intangible, Wonder Man's ionic body absorbed the released energy, Sersi turned the rest of the Kree team into inanimate matter, and the Shi'ar team hadn't arrived on the scene yet) gather on Hala, the Kree homeworld, and discover that most of the events of the war- up to and including the Nega-Bomb's detonation- have been manipulated and engineered by

28054-399: The volume of the universe , but even galaxies and star systems consist almost entirely of empty space. Most of the remaining mass-energy in the observable universe is made up of an unknown form, dubbed dark matter and dark energy . Outer space does not begin at a definite altitude above Earth's surface. The Kármán line , an altitude of 100 km (62 mi) above sea level ,

28223-457: Was eventually popularized through the writings of H. G. Wells after 1901. Theodore von Kármán used the term of free space to name the space of altitudes above Earth where spacecrafts reach conditions sufficiently free from atmospheric drag, differentiating it from airspace , identifying a legal space above territories free from the sovereign jurisdiction of countries. " Spaceborne " denotes existing in outer space, especially if carried by

28392-647: Was passed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1963 and signed in 1967 by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the United States of America (USA), and the United Kingdom (UK). As of 2017, 105 state parties have either ratified or acceded to the treaty. An additional 25 states signed the treaty, without ratifying it. Since 1958, outer space has been the subject of multiple United Nations resolutions. Of these, more than 50 have been concerning

28561-453: Was written and drawn by the regular creative teams on each title. The title of the storyline is an allusion to Operation: Desert Storm , the Pentagon 's operational title for the 1991 Gulf War , which had been recently resolved when the idea for "Operation: Galactic Storm" was conceived. Although the phrase is featured in the storyline (it is the name the Avengers give to their own deployment)

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