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detective | 17:23 Mon 16th Feb 2009 | Science
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Which unit in astrophysics of about 1 billion degrees centigrade is used to measure the inner temperature of a star?
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Well, according to this site

http://www.solarviews.com/eng/sun.htm

the core temperature of the sun is only 1.5 billion degrees C. So whatever your unit of measurement is, it's going to result in some pretty low numbers!
The unit you're looking for is probably the keV

At that high of a value Celsius (centigrade) and kelvin are essentially the same

Kelvin is generally preferred as it is not biased to the relatively low temperature of freezing water.

1,000,000,270 kelvin converts to roughly 86.21738keV
Electron volts are used as a measure of temperature and
1 eV is roughly equal to 11,000 �C. A temperature of about
1,000,000,000 �C would be not far from one million eV or
1 MeV which is one mega electron volt.
However you do not use it to measure temperature at the inside of a star.

You use it to measure the energy of particles. There is an equivilence as mentioned above but I can assure you that nobody ever refers to the temperature of a star in electron volts nor the energy of a subatomic particle in degrees Kelvin or Celcius.

(possible exception of science journalists trynig to put things in "human terms" )
There is an important distinction between energy and temperature one should understand.

The electron-volt is a unit of energy which in certain cases has a corresponding relationship to temperature notably useful in understanding the theoretical properties of ideal gases.

"The temperature, T, of a gas or plasma and average particle kinetic energy, E, are related by the Boltzmann constant, k = 1.38 � 10-23 J/K, in the equation E = kT."

This relationship is also evident in the fusion processes of stars and is often applied in the realm of astrophysics
And if you're doing GFQ you are NOT supposed to cheat on this website.

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