Facts About the Sun


Key Facts About the Sun ☀️ List

The facts about the sun headline news is that our sun isn’t due to set for several billion years so you can take your lifetime to marvel at how huge the sun is! The Sun accounts for 99.8% of the entire mass in our solar system. Remove Saturn and Jupiter from the remaining 0.2% and planet Earth is just a tiny speck. Even our sun, which weighs around 1,988,920,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000 kilograms (multiply by 2.2 for lbs if you think that will help!), is a lightweight compared to other stars in the universe. For example, the red giant Betelgeuse, is around 1000 times larger!

  • ADDucation’s list of facts about the sun was compiled by Robert Junker and last updated on 18 Aug 2024
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The Sun ☀️ Fascinating Facts About The Sun ☀️
Solar system Our sun is the fixed star in our solar system. Among all the stars of the Milky Way, it is a so-called “Yellow Dwarf”.
Diameter 870,000 miles (1.4 million km).
Distance to Earth Approx. 93 m. miles (150 million km).
Age Approximately 4.57 billion years.
Composition The sun is composed of 73.5% hydrogen and 25% helium.
Volume The sun would have room for about 1.3 million planet Earths.
Circumference Approx. 2.7 million miles (4.4 million km).
Mass Roughly 330,000 times that of the Earth and about 1000 x heavier than all the 9 planets together.
Rotation The sun revolves around its own axis in 25.38 days.
Core temperature Nuclear fusion inside the sun heats it up to a cosy 15 million° Celsius. In the process, hydrogen is converted to helium.
Burning life The sun’s supply of hydrogen will continue to burn for about another 5 billion years.
Temperature of outer layer About 5600° Celsius.
Energy radiation A total of 384 trillion megawatts (1 megawatt = 1,000 kilowatts). But only about 178 billion megawatts of that reach the earth.
Ray of light A ray of light from the sun takes about 8 minutes to get to the earth.
Luminosity 1 square meter of sun shines brighter than 1 million light bulbs.
Pressure Some 340 million times higher than at sea level.
Solar prominences Solar flares which throw up matter at a speed of over 600 mph (1000 km/h).
Solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Sun and the Earth.
Next total solar eclipse 14 December 2020 In the southern hemisphere across the south Pacific ocean, Chile, Argentina and south Atlantic ocean.
Last total solar eclipse Over Northern Australia on 20 March 2015.
Next total solar eclipse UK 23 September 2090 (south coast)
Last total solar eclipse UK 30 June 1954
Next total solar eclipse USA 8 April 2024. It will be visible across north America including Mexico, the United States and Canada.
Last total solar eclipse USA 21 August 2017.

See Also: Fact about Moon… | All Planets…

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