In this season of the winter sun, I find there’s something
powerfully mystical about the human connection to a star 93 million
miles away from Earth that our planet has orbited for the last 4.3
billion years. And our link to a life-giving sphere of light and
heat especially seems relevant during the time of year when the
nights grow long and the days grow cold.
In this season of the winter sun, I find there’s something powerfully mystical about the human connection to a star 93 million miles away from Earth that our planet has orbited for the last 4.3 billion years. And our link to a life-giving sphere of light and heat especially seems relevant during the time of year when the nights grow long and the days grow cold.
The sun is so vital to the creation and continued survival of life on our world that many people in the ancient past considered it to be a deity. It was worshipped as the the god Ra by the Egyptians, and Apollo by the Greeks and Romans. It also has significant religious relevance to the Christian faith. Believers call their holy day – the first day of the week – Sunday. That celestial body also has a connection for Christians during this holy season celebrating the birth of a baby the world knows as Jesus Christ. In the Bible, he is called “the Light” and “the Highest,” descriptions also depicting the sun.
In California, the Spanish designed their beautiful mission churches to have a special celestial alignment with the rising sun on the shortest day of the year. The South Valley’s own mission church in San Juan Bautista was constructed to allow for the rising winter solstice sun – on Dec. 21 this year – to shine its light through a window and trace a beam down the center aisle to land on the holy altar. People who have witnessed this solar event describe it as a mystical experience, a reminder that God’s light can cast out the darkness.
The ancient civilizations who revered the sun never had any idea of the true source of its power – or its size and scope. About 1.3 million planet Earths could fit in its volume, and it contains more than 99.9 percent of the mass in our solar system. At its core, the sun is a hellish place where the temperature is a staggering 28.1 million degrees Fahrenheit and the pressure is 340 billion times the air pressure at sea level. These conditions allow for the continuous fusing together of nuclei particles in hydrogen atoms to form the element helium, releasing heat and radiation in a thermonuclear reaction. The light particles – called photons – are created in this process. Only a tiny percentage reach our own planet about eight minutes after leaving the place of their creation. These are enough to sustain life on Earth.
We’re living in an interesting time in history, the dawn of a new day where the sun might truly prove to be humanity’s salvation. As modern civilization is forced to move from the Fossil Fuel Age to the Clean Energy Age, we will rely more and more on what happens at the heart of our nearby star. In the coming decades, we will see a move to use more of the sun’s virtually unlimited power.
The most obvious use of the sun’s energy will be in solar panels and solar thermal plants. Here in the South Valley, we’re now seeing the emergence of the solar industry in the Silicon Valley region where a number of photovoltaic companies have formed. Engineers and research scientists at these firms are coming up with exciting innovations that will bring down the cost of manufacturing solar energy products as well as increase the efficiency in how they turn sunlight into electricity.
But at the dawn of the Clean Energy Age, we must also remember that sun power is turned into other useful forms of energy. About 2 percent of the sunlight that reaches Earth is converted into the movement of air from a gentle breeze to a terrifying hurricane. Wind power turbines such as the ones found on Pacheco Pass and the Altamont Pass are, in one sense, capturing the sun’s energy.
Water also is moved by the sun’s energy – something we witness frequently in the weather cycles where the sun continuously evaporates lakes and oceans to produce the clouds that bring rain water and snowmelt used in hydroelectric power plants. And biofuels also are produced by sunlight. In the coming years, our modern world will see greater consumption of energy produced by life forms such as algae, anaerobic bacteria, prairie grass and other vegetation.
A pastor once pointed out to me the similarity between the word “sun” and “son.” In the Nativity story celebrated during this time of year, God sent his son down from heaven to save the world by bringing it spiritual enlightenment. Maybe as we look at the winter sun during this week leading to Christmas Day, we can ponder that the power coming down from the star our planet orbits can lead to a new energy enlightenment – one that might very well save our world.
