ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Newcomb's Tables of the Sun

Okay kiddo, have you ever seen a really big ball of gas in the sky during the day? That's the sun. It's always shining and giving us light and warmth. But did you know that scientists like to study the sun and keep track of how it changes over time? They use a special tool called "Newcomb's Tables of the Sun" to do this.

You can think of these tables like a big book of information about the sun. They tell scientists things like how hot the sun is, how big it is, and how fast it's spinning. They even have information about how the sun's magnetic field changes over time. All of this information is really important for scientists who study space and the sun.

But how do we get all this information? Well, scientists use special instruments to measure things like the sun's temperature and size. They also use something called "spectroscopy" to look at the light coming from the sun and learn more about what it's made of.

Once scientists have all of this information, they can put it into Newcomb's Tables of the Sun. This helps them keep track of how the sun is changing over time. They can look back at old tables and see how the sun was different in the past, and use that information to predict how it might change in the future.

So, Newcomb's Tables of the Sun are kind of like a big book that scientists use to study the sun and learn more about it. They help us understand how the sun works and how it's changing over time. And who knows, maybe one day you'll be a scientist studying the sun too!