h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How sure can we be about this description of the Sun/ star? Do the facts match the theory?

1)"The core of the Sun is where energy generation takes place..."
"The temperature of the core is of the order of 107K." (= 10million degrees)
>BUT
"...it is impossible to see inside" so are we not just guessing?

2)0.15 to 0.7
"Photons are absorbed and re-emitted every few millimetres. It takes more than 50,000 years for the photons generated here to escape from the Sun."
>Golly this is a slow process! Cannot make fast changes.
BUT the sun changes size every 160 minutes and brightness from minutes to hours!

3)0.7 - 0.99
"Convection currents move gasses of varying temperature around in this zone...The temperature ..order of 106 to 107K." (= 1-10million deg??)

>The Big Bear Solar Observatory lists the photosphere temperature as about 6000K. Sunspots are typically 4000K - holes looking in to the centre!

4) "The Sun's corona ... is very hot gas, about 5x107K (50million deg)..."
>Lower Corona is listed as 2 million degrees. Whatever - it's much hotter than the photosphere surface!

5) "..and is heated by pressure and magnetic fields from deeper inside the Sun."

>How do you make magnetic fields, to reach out that far? Surely you need electric fields and currents too?

I haven't mentioned the solar wind yet.

Could the centre of the sun be cool due to the enormous pressures involved?

It could be cool because there ain't much there! The real action is on and above the surface.