• Question: Is there such a temparature as hotter than the sun?

    Asked by slytheringirl to Mike, Pip, Tianfu, Tim, Tom on 3 Jul 2012.
    • Photo: Tim Stephens

      Tim Stephens answered on 3 Jul 2012:

      Great question. Yes!
      In fact, the surface of the sun is ‘only’ about 5500 degrees C. The core is much, much hotter, but even that is cooler than the universe was just after the Big Bang. Temperature is a measure of how much all the atoms and molecules in an object are vibrating, so it’s very possible that things can vibrate more strongly than in the core of the sun.

    • Photo: Tom Lister

      Tom Lister answered on 3 Jul 2012:

      The sun is considered a ‘yellow dwarf’ (although it is definitely white in colour!) This is quite a cool (cold) kind of star. Hotter stars are called ‘white’ or ‘blue’ something (and cooler stars are red). So it is not even the hottest star!

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