{"slug": "sun", "label": "Sun", "wikipedia": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun", "wikidata": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q525", "qid": "Q525", "description": "star at the centre of the Solar System", "entries": 10, "years": 10, "span": [-199, 2024], "span_label": ["200 BCE", "2024 CE"], "topics": [{"title": "Science & Discovery", "count": 6}, {"title": "Exploration & Expansion", "count": 2}, {"title": "Culture & Society", "count": 1}, {"title": "Climate & Environment", "count": 1}], "also_known_as": [], "related": [{"slug": "earth", "label": "Earth", "shared": 4}, {"slug": "nasa", "label": "NASA", "shared": 1}, {"slug": "euripides", "label": "Euripides", "shared": 1}, {"slug": "sophocles", "label": "Sophocles", "shared": 1}, {"slug": "library-of-alexandria", "label": "Library of Alexandria", "shared": 1}, {"slug": "venus", "label": "Venus", "shared": 1}, {"slug": "james-cook", "label": "James Cook", "shared": 1}, {"slug": "tahiti", "label": "Tahiti", "shared": 1}, {"slug": "english-people", "label": "English people", "shared": 1}, {"slug": "british-raj", "label": "British Raj", "shared": 1}, {"slug": "pluto", "label": "Pluto", "shared": 1}], "items": [{"year": -199, "year_label": "200 BCE", "section": "Science & Discovery", "date": null, "text": "The first good measurement of the distance between Earth and the Sun is made by Eratosthenes (approximate date). By studying lunar eclipses, his result is roughly 150 000 000 km. The currently accepted value is 149 597 870 691 ± 30 metres.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1360771623#Astronomy", "title": "200 BC", "revid": 1360771623, "section": "Events › By topic › Astronomy"}}, {"year": 391, "year_label": "391 CE", "section": "Culture & Society", "date": null, "text": "Flames destroy the great Library of Alexandria, established in the Mouseion in the fourth century BC. Among the items lost in the fire are works of science, including parchments by the Greek astronomer Aristarchus of Samos asserting that the Earth orbits the Sun, and dozens of dramatic works by Euripides and Sophocles.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1327980191#Literature", "title": "391", "revid": 1327980191, "section": "Events › By topic › Literature"}}, {"year": 1651, "year_label": "1651 CE", "section": "Science & Discovery", "date": null, "text": "William Gilbert's A New Philosophy of Our Sublunar World is published posthumously. It theorises that the fixed stars are not all the same distance from Earth, and that the force of magnetism holds the planets in orbit around the Sun.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1353737250#Undated", "title": "1651 in England", "revid": 1353737250, "section": "Events › Undated"}}, {"year": 1769, "year_label": "1769 CE", "section": "Exploration & Expansion", "date": "April 13", "text": "13 April – first voyage of James Cook: James Cook arrives in Tahiti on the ship HM Bark Endeavour, preparing to observe the transit of the planet Venus, which takes place on 3 June. After the voyage, the data is found to be inaccurate in determining the distance between the Sun and Earth.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1356128438#Events", "title": "1769 in Great Britain", "revid": 1356128438, "section": "Events"}}, {"year": 1866, "year_label": "1866 CE", "section": "Science & Discovery", "date": "June 5", "text": "June 5 – Calculations indicate Pluto (not known at this time) reaches its only aphelion (furthest point from the Sun) between 1618 and August 2113.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1368829327#June", "title": "1866", "revid": 1368829327, "section": "Events › June"}}, {"year": 1868, "year_label": "1868 CE", "section": "Science & Discovery", "date": "August 18", "text": "18 August - The element later named as helium is first detected in the spectrum of the Sun's chromosphere by astronomer Jules Janssen during a total eclipse in Guntur, India, but assumed to be sodium (on 20 October English astronomer Norman Lockyer identifies it).", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1332306514#Events", "title": "1868 in France", "revid": 1332306514, "section": "Events"}}, {"year": 1882, "year_label": "1882 CE", "section": "Science & Discovery", "date": "December 6", "text": "6 December – A rare transit of Venus across the disc of the Sun is visible from Australia, and many scientific parties arrive from around the world to observe and record the transit. The next occurrence was June 2004.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1313714177#Science_and_technology", "title": "1882 in Australia", "revid": 1313714177, "section": "Science and technology"}}, {"year": 2012, "year_label": "2012 CE", "section": "Climate & Environment", "date": "July 23", "text": "July 23 – The Solar storm of 2012 is an unusually large coronal mass ejection emitted by the Sun which barely misses the Earth by nine days. If it had hit, it would have caused up to US$2.6 trillion in damages to electrical equipment worldwide.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1373434549#July", "title": "2012", "revid": 1373434549, "section": "Events › July"}}, {"year": 2018, "year_label": "2018 CE", "section": "Exploration & Expansion", "date": "August 12", "text": "August 12 – NASA launches the uncrewed Parker Solar Probe to study the Sun at close range and the solar wind.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1373090883#August", "title": "2018", "revid": 1373090883, "section": "Events › August"}}, {"year": 2024, "year_label": "2024 CE", "section": "Science & Discovery", "date": "December 24", "text": "December 24 – The Parker Solar Probe breaks the previous record set in 2018 for the closest artificial object to the Sun by 6.1 million kilometers (3.8 million miles), becoming the closest and first man-made object to approach and \"touch\" the Sun.", "cite": {"url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1371869228#December", "title": "2024", "revid": 1371869228, "section": "Events › December"}}]}