What is the light-giving surface of the Sun known as?

The light-giving surface of the Sun is known as the photosphere. This layer is the one that emits visible light, making it the part of the Sun that we can observe directly with the naked eye. The photosphere is approximately 400 kilometers thick and has a temperature of about 5,500 degrees Celsius (about 9,932 degrees Fahrenheit). When we see the Sun shining in the sky, we are actually seeing the light that comes from this layer.

The chromosphere lies just above the photosphere and is a thin layer that can sometimes be seen during a solar eclipse as a reddish glow. It plays a role in solar activity but does not emit the visible light that defines the Sun’s appearance from our perspective.

The corona is the outer atmosphere of the Sun, extending millions of kilometers into space. While it is impressive and can be seen as a white halo during a total solar eclipse, it is much hotter than the photosphere but less dense, which makes it not the primary source of the visible light we perceive.

A nebula is an entirely different phenomenon, referring to a giant cloud of dust and gas in space, and is not related to the structure of the Sun itself.