Superman gets his power from exposure to the Earth’s yellow Sun.
In this article, we will look closely at the relationship between Superman and the Sun.
Stars are vast nuclear fusion reactors that turn hydrogen into helium and the rays of the yellow sun impact Superman’s Kryptonian cells in a unique way.
Superman can enter the sun. He would come out of the sun recharged and with increased strength and healing powers. Exactly how deep into the sun’s core and the length of the visit would vary slightly according to when the story was written.
Table of Contents
Did Superman Already Enter The Sun?
Superman has come remarkably close to the sun on several occasions.
On each occasion, the result has been that Superman becomes stronger.
His cells are something like those of a plant that photosynthesize energy direct from the sun. Potentially this means that Superman might have no need to eat.
When near the sun he gets strength and healing power.
On occasions when Superman has become very worn down, he has taken part in “Sun-Dipping” where he intentionally spends time close to the sun-bathing in its rays.
The closer Superman is to the sun, the greater its rejuvenating powers.
There have been occasions when Superman has over-indulged in Sun Dipping and at those times Superman’s healing power fixes any damage.
If Superman were to land on the surface of the sun, he would feel a little hot but would suffer no ill effects.
The sun does have substantial nuclear energy but that mostly resides at the core of the sun.
Even prolonged exposure to the sun at close quarters is not fatal for Superman. In the “DC One Million Event” Superman built a secret base in the center of the sun.
The result was that Superman turned Gold.
However, in recent years DC has toned down some of Superman’s powers and that probably would not be written today.
Superman Needs The Sun To Have Superpowers
The Photonucleic Effect is the reason that Superman and other Kryptonians are given fantastic powers because of their exposure to the yellow sun, most of the powers that are present in Superman are a result of this effect.
The powers that result from the Photonucleic effect are as follows:
X-Ray Vision
Kryptonians can convert the energy contained in the bodily cells into x-rays.
This allows them to see through solid objects.
Heat Vision
Another special power connected with the eyes is Heat Vision.
They do this by releasing a lot of energy stored in their cells and focusing this power (in infra-red form) through their eyes into tightly focused beams.
Super Breath
Superman has the power to blow extremely forceful “blows” from his mouth, something like a gale.
He can also make his breath drop in temperature until it is freezing. These are the result of Photonucleic powers.
SuperSpeed
Kryptonians store solar energy in their bodies and depending on how much energy is stored so the amount of speed Superman can run at may vary. In extreme cases, Superman can run at speeds that approximate the speed of light.
This speed ability also affects their reaction time.
Flight
Nobody has explained how Superman and other Kryptonians can fly.
It is an ability related to the energy stored in their cells, which traces back to the Photonucleic effects.
Super Strength
Kryptonians can naturally lift far greater weights than humans, because of the differences in gravity on Krypton and Earth.
It is also connected with the amount of solar energy stored in their cells.
How Do Suns of Other Colors Affect Superman?
There are suns of many colors. The sun’s color is affected by the temperature and age of the star.
Yellow Sun
One of the basic facts we know about yellow suns, like ours, is that they provide Superman with the power for his superpowers.
It is because Superman lives under a yellow sun that he has the powers he does now.
Red Sun
Red Suns rob Superman of his powers and leave him weak.
Krypton had a red sun and living on Krypton he had normal strength.
It was only when Superman came to live on earth with a yellow sun that these powers grew. We find this out in Action Comics #262.
Orange Sun
In Superman comic #27 we find out that an Orange Sun both reduces Superman’s powers and his intelligence.
We discover this when Superman visits the planet Synmar (which has an orange sun).
Green Sun
In Superman #155 we find out that a green sun has a similar effect to a red sun and takes away Superman’s powers.
Obviously, a place to avoid.
Blue Sun
You would think with the similarities between green and blue, that a blue sun would also be harmful to Superman.
The strange thing is that a blue sun does not take away Superman’s powers but gives Superman extra powers., We find this out in Action Comics # 855.
Purple Sun
A purple sun is a strange one and exposure to its ray will provide superman with the power to create items he might need from nowhere.
He does not even have to think, it just happens. This story is told in Superman Comic # 371/2.
White Dwarf Sun
White dwarfs have extraordinarily little effect on Superman, the precise nature of this slight effect is known. All we know is from Superman’s father who says that white suns have a slightly different effects.
Superman Skin And Sun Energy Absorption
In the last section, we looked at the wide variety of colors of suns. This is partially true, and some facts are known about each of these types of stars.
We know for example that Krypton’s sun is a red one.
Science tells us that a red sun which is one end of the spectrum is much cooler than Earth’s sun is. In fact, an M Class star (a red one).
In “Man of Steel” we are informed by a Kryptonian soldier that the atmospheric conditions on Krypto are not within the range that a human requires.
A Kryptonian that gathers energy from a star directly by a process akin to Photosynthesis living on a planet that provides less light than the sun would need all the help he could get to harvest sunlight.
Science tells us that a black skin would be far more efficient in those circumstances. Since black skin is more efficient, it follows that evolution would have favored individuals with darker skins, and white-skinned Kryptonians would not exist.
Krypton, circling around an M Class star would be receiving half the energy that the Earth collects from the yellow sun.
This was pointed out by Dr. Nancy Kiang in an article in Scientific American.
She goes on to point out that Superman’s skin would not have the equivalent of Melanin since his metabolism is designed to turn sunlight into chemicals.
He would be equipped with Light Capturing pigments, with black skin. Plants may also appear to be black under the M Class red sun.
I mention this here because when we are looking at different color suns, we should be considering far more than yellow boost Superman’s power and red suns drain it. We should be considering why this occurs and what other changes may occur.
We also should consider why Kryptonians developed with the ability to have Superpowers under a yellow sun.
Why would that happen if they had evolved on a planet with a red sun? One solution would be that these superpowers were a product of evolution in earlier times on Krypton when the planet still had a yellow sun.
When the sun later turned red the Kryptonians lost their superpowers, with Superman only being awakened when he reached a planet with a yellow sun.
The other option is that Kryptonians never evolved superpowers and simply had a metabolism that used sunlight directly (favoring the black skin argument) and it is just purely accidental that when Superman was exposed to stronger yellow sunlight that the consequent boost to his system mutated so that Superpowers appeared.
We saw some support for this argument when Superman visited a planet with a blue sun, even more, powerful, and his body developed new superpowers that were not available to him on Earth with its yellow sun.
Conclusion
The temperature of the Sun is close to 15.7 million kelvins (K) so it’s hard to imagine that somebody could enter the sun without any damage.
But we can’t forget that it’s a Superman that we speak about!
In this article, we started out looking at whether Superman could enter the sun.
We established that he has already done so and that he did not suffer any ill effects from his exposure.
His self-healing powers dealt with any overcharging, but Superman came out of the sun far stronger and healthier than he was when he went in.
We also established the process by which Superman makes use of the sun’s power and how he stores that power in his cells.
Finally, we discovered that the different colors of sunlight were like a sliding scale of power and that when you took this to an extreme, in the case of the more powerful blue sun that his powers increased and we saw how this suggested (through science) that Superman should actually have black skin.
