Sol (astronomy science series)

Cache is not a far walk from 4x4 road (Forest Road 271) in Park County

Our sun, Sol, is not only the center of our Solar System, it IS our solar system: 99.98 percent of the mass of our solar system is the Sun. We are a teensy part of it- literally. The Sun’s magnetosphere and corona stretch out the 90 million miles it takes to get here from the photosphere- the part of the Sun that we see. We are actually inside part of our Sun!

If the solar system were a house, we would be a penny on the floor under the kitchen cabinets somewhere.

And its shrinking. The Sun is- mass wise, I mean. It burns 600,000,000 tons of hydrogen every second. Well, it burns more than that: Its converting hydrogen to helium. But the 600 million tons of mass it loses every second becomes stuff like light. And magnetism, and radiation, but mostly light. Not all light that we can see, certainly, but all the kinds of light that our eyes cannot see, too. Like x-rays, and gamma rays, and infra-red light. All of it, converted inside our sun every second.

And that light goes everywhere. Over a million Earths could fit inside our Sun, and we don’t get all the light. We get a teensy portion, the same way that we are a teensy planet. And we are a long ways away from the Sun. Remember that in the summer when the temperature is over 100 degrees and Colorado is on fire: the Earth is closer to the Sun in the winter, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted slightly away. Summers in Australia are hotter!

Originally I thought this science series would be a power trail, but things being the way things are, these astronomy-themed caches are not very power-trail-ish. Instead, the first half can be found along Lake George’s Forest Rd 271. This is a 4x4 trail; please do not attempt with a regular car! Terrain and difficulty ratings are for people who drive to the cache locations; if you hike or mountain bike, of course the D/Ts will be different.

There will be a mixture of regular sized and small caches to start. We have a lot of peanut-butter jars to repurpose. The key is to have fun! And stay safe!

cache is a short walk (less than a 10th of a mile) from Forest Road 271. Nice views!

Congrats, jherber, FTF!