How many typical houses could be heated by the energy released by the Sun each second?
The energy that falls onto the surface of the entire Earth is roughly enough to heat a trillion typical houses, meaning houses with an area of about 3,000 square feet. A trillion is a million times a million. This is roughly how many houses it would take to cover the entire surface of the Earth, which, on the average has a fairly comfortable temperature, thanks to our Sun. SCIENTIST: Charlie Lindsey, National Solar Observatory, Kitt Peak SOLAR MAXIMUM QUESTION: How do you know the next solar maximum will occur around 2003? Morrie, Shawn, and Mickey, Willard Middle School, Berkeley CA ANSWER: We know because the Sun is very regular. People have been counting the number of sunspots since about 1740, and we can see that the sunspots and the solar activity reach a maximum every 11 years. The last solar max was in about 1991/1992 so the next one is due in 2002/2003. Eric Christian SCIENTIST: Eric Christian, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center SOLAR PHYSICIST QUESTION: What does a solar physici
