Our Sun is a 4.5 billion-year-old yellow dwarf star, a glowing ball of hydrogen & helium at the heart of our solar systems.

The Sun is the only star in our solar system. It is located about 93,000,000 miles (150,000,000 kilometres) away from Earth. Life on Earth would not be possible without the Sun’s power.

12 Important Things About Sun

1. The Sun is 100 times larger than Earth and ten times bigger than Jupiter.

2. Our solar system only comprises one star, the Sun. The Sun is at the centre of the solar system, and its gravitational pull holds it together. It is the centre of our solar system, and its gravity holds it together.

3. It is difficult to measure a “day.” Plasma is a super-hot gas that’s electrically charged. The Sun’s plasma rotates in different directions on different parts. The Sun rotates once every 25 Earth days at its equator. The Sun rotates on its axis at its poles every 36 Earth Days.

4. The Photosphere is the part of the Sun that we can see from Earth. We call it the surface. The Sun is a ball made of plasma and doesn’t have a solid, flat surface.

5. The thin chromosphere (crown) and huge corona (sphere) are above the Sun’s surface. Here, we can see solar prominences, flares, and coronal mass Ejections. These two latter events are massive explosions of particles and energy that can reach Earth.

6. The Sun does not have moons. But it is orbited around by eight planets. There are also at least five dwarf worlds. Tens of thousands of asteroids and possibly three trillion comets or icy bodies.

7. Several spacecraft are currently investigating the Sun, including Parker Solar Probe (PSP), STEREO, Solar Orbiter (SOHO), Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), Hinode, IRIS, and Wind.

8. When the solar system formed 4.6 billion years ago, it would have had a disk of dust and gas surrounding it. Some of this dust is still present as dust rings around the Sun.

They can trace the orbits and gravity of planets that pull dust around the Sun. The Sun’s energy is essential for all life on Earth.

9. The core of the Sun is hot enough to support nuclear fusion. Its temperature is approximately 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. The star is kept from collapsing by the outward pressure created.

From our Earthly perspective, the Sun appears to be a constant source of heat and light in the sky. The Sun is dynamic, changing constantly and sending energy into space. Heliophysics is the science that studies the Sun’s influence on the entire solar system.

10. The Sun is the largest object in our solar system. It is approximately 865,000 miles (1,4 million kilometres) in diameter. Its gravity keeps the solar system in place, keeping all the planets and debris orbiting around it.

11. Despite being the core of our solar system, the Sun is only a star of average size. There have been stars up to 100 larger. Many solar systems contain more than one stellar. Scientists can learn more about distant stars by studying the Sun.

12. The Sun’s core has temperatures reaching 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius). The Photosphere, which we call the surface of the Sun, is relatively calm at 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

The Sun’s outer atmosphere (the corona) gets hotter as it moves away from its surface. This is one of the biggest mysteries. The corona can reach temperatures of up to 3.5 million degrees (2 million degrees C), much hotter than the Photosphere.

Key Facts About Sun

Here are some important facts about Sun.

Namesake

Many different names have known the Sun. Solar is the Latin term for Sun. Helios is the ancient Greek Sun God, and his name has been given to many Sun-related words, including Heliosphere, helioseismology, and Heliosphere.

Potential for Life

Due to its radiation and extreme temperatures, the Sun cannot support life as we currently know it. The Sun’s energy and light is what makes life possible on Earth.

Size and Distance

Our Sun is an average-sized star with an estimated diameter of 435,000 miles (750,000 kilometres). However, its mass dwarfs that of Earth – it would take 330,000 Earths to match that of our star.

The Sun lies about 93,000,000 miles (150,000,000 kilometres) from Earth. Our nearest stellar neighbour is the Alpha Centauri system of three stars – Proxima Centauri is approximately 4.24 light years away, while Alpha Centauri B and A are 4.37. Light travels an estimated distance of about 6 trillion miles (9 trillion kilometres).

Orbit and Rotation

The Sun can be found within the Milky Way galaxy in an arm known as Orion Spur that extends from Sagittarius Arm. Our Solar System lies at the centre of the Milky Way galaxy, along with planets and asteroids.

Moving at an average speed of 450,000 miles per hour (720,000 kilometres per time), this solar system takes approximately 230 million years to circle our galaxy compGalaxy.

As it travels around the Galaxy, the Sun spins on its axis. This spin is tilted by 7.25 degrees relative to the plane of planets’ orbits; different parts rotate at different speeds due to being an inorganic object like itself; it rotates on its axis at its poles approximately every 36 Earth Days.

Moons

The Sun is a star and does not have moons. However, planets and their satellites orbit around the Sun.

Rings

Around 4.6 billion years ago, when the solar system first formed, the Sun would have been covered by a disk made of dust and gas.

Some of this dust is still present as dust rings around the Sun. They can trace the orbits and gravity of planets that pull dust around the Sun.

The Formation of a New Company

The Solar Nebula was formed about 4.6 billion years ago when a massive cloud of dust and gas came together under gravity to form our Sun.

After its collapse, it flattened into a disc shape. Materials from within it then gravitated toward its centre where our Sun now exists as 99.8% of mass for our solar system was formed there before any remaining material formed planets and other objects that currently orbit it; early solar winds dispersed any remaining gas or dust into space.

As is true for all stars, our Sun will eventually exhaust its energy resources and go extinct, eventually becoming a giant red star that could engulf Mercury, Venus, and Earth.

According to scientists, the Sun has passed halfway through its lifespan. However, it will still exist for another 5 billion years before becoming a white dwarf.

Structure

The Sun is an immense mass of hydrogen, helium, and other gases held together by gravity.

The Sun can be divided into various areas. Interior regions consist of radiative and convection zones; visible surfaces (Photosphere) comprise the next step, followed by the chromosphere and transition zone until finally reaching the corona of the Sun.

Material leaving the corona at supersonic speed becomes solar wind, creating an enormous magnetic “bubble” known as the Heliosphere, which surrounds our Sun and extends well past planet orbits; Earth lies within this atmospheric layer while interstellar space lies outside its boundary.

The centre of the Sun is its hottest part. All heat, light, and energy from nuclear reactions in its core are generated here; hydrogen is fused into helium.

At 86,000 miles thick (138,000 km), its core can reach temperatures as high as 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius) with temperatures reaching 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius).

Furthermore, its density measures at around 150 grams per cubic millimetre (g/cm3), which makes it about eight times denser than gold (19.3g/cm3) while being 13 times denser than lead (11.3g/cm3)

Radiation moves energy from the core outward through radiative waves. It takes about 170,000 years to travel from the core to the convection zone and then to the Photosphere, which we call its surface.

As radiation bounces off these areas and hits convection zone boundaries, temperature gradually decreases until temperature reaches below 3.5 million degF (2 million degC) as convection zones move outward, reaching temperatures reaching 1.5 million degC (2 million degF).

Hot plasma (ionised molecules in soup form) moves upward into this layer that we refer to as its surface.

Surface

The Sun does not possess a solid surface like Earth and other rocky planets and moons; however, we refer to its Photosphere as the surface.

The Photosphere is an acronym for “light sphere,” as this layer emits most of its visible light – what we can see with our own eyes from Earth.

When looking directly at the Sun, it is wise to protect your eyes with sunglasses or protective eyewear to prevent permanent eye damage.

The Photosphere (commonly called surface) is the outer layer of our Sun’s atmosphere. At 250 miles thick and temperatures reaching over 10,000F (5 500C), it is the initial step toward space exploration, for most of its energy escaping from our Sun.

Atmosphere

Above the Photosphere lies the chromosphere and transition zone, although scientists don’t usually refer to them separately; scientists simply refer to them as thin layers in which the chromosphere heats up into corona formation.

All three parts comprise the Sun’s atmosphere: Photosphere, corona, and chromosphere, with the corona being an uppermost atmospheric layer that often gets casually called “Sun’s atmosphere.”

Sunspots and coronal holes are all visible in the Sun’s atmosphere.

Key Sun Features

Sunspots: Sunspots may appear as dark holes on the surface, but their surroundings are more fantastic. Sunspots form when bits of magnetic field poke through to penetrate its atmosphere, lasting from days to months with sizes between 1,000 and 100,000 miles (1600 to 160900 kilometres). NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio/SDO offers real-time views of these sunspots for accurate analysis.

Coronal Holes: Coronal Holes Coronal holes, also known as coronal low-density patches or sunspots, can be identified in ultraviolet images of the Sun as dark spots due to field lines directly connecting with interplanetary space, allowing solar material to escape into fast-moving streams of solar winds and create holes on its surface.

Solar Blazes: Solar flares, or flashes as often called, are highly energetic bursts caused by magnetic energy being released onto the Sun, producing energetic explosions equivalent to millions of hydrogen bombs exploding simultaneously.

Coronal Mass Ejections: Coronal Mass Ejections, commonly called CMEs, are vast clouds of magnetised particles released into space from the Sun at speeds exceeding one million miles an hour, usually following a solar flare.

As they travel through space, they expand over time – reaching speeds of over a million miles an hour in some instances.

When directed toward Earth, they can cause geomagnetic disturbances, which ignite auroras or short-circuit satellites or power grids before ultimately endangering astronauts in space.

Solar Prominence: A prominence is a serpentine structure composed of denser, more astonishing solar material suspended by local magnetic fields.

These filament-like structures become known as prominences when observed against the solar disc from its front rather than visible edges.

When their magnetic structures become unstable, prominences may explode with explosive force into coronal mass ejection blasts, releasing their plasma in an outpouring called coronal mass ejections (CMEs).

Spicules: Up to 10 million jets of solar matter can be seen bursting from the Sun at any given time, appearing like grass-like tendrils reaching 60 miles per hour (100 kilometres per hour) and stretching for more than 6,000 miles (9700 kilometres). These jets, known as “spicules,” may appear briefly before dissipating.

The visible light from the top regions of the Sun is usually too weak to see against the brighter Photosphere. But when the Moon covers it, the chromosphere appears as a fine red rim during total solar eclipses.

The corona looks like a white crown (corona means crown in Latin or Spanish), with plasma streamers that narrow outward into shapes like flower petals.

The corona of the Sun is hotter than its layers below. Imagine walking from a bonfire and getting warmer. It is still a mystery as to what causes coronal heating.

Magnetosphere

Our solar system is permeated by magnetic fields caused by our Sun, as its magnetic energy spreads throughout space. The solar wind, an electrically charged gas that blows from it outwards, transports these fields throughout space.

The Heliosphere, an enormous bubble of air dominated by its magnetic field, contains this field all around our Solar system in an oval pattern known as the Parker spiral, similar to how a rotating sprinkler sprays water drops onto a lawn.

The Sun doesn’t behave the same every time; its solar cycle is an unpredictable series of phases with higher and lower activity levels.

Magnetic poles switch polarity approximately every 11 years; during this cycle, the Sun’s chromosphere and corona become quiet to violently active.

Solar maximum is the peak of the Sun’s activity cycle. It marks its maximum activity point, often leading to solar storms. Sunspots and eruptions known as solar flares peak during this period.

Coronal mass ejections also frequently take place. Solar Cycle 25 began with its minimum in December 2019, according to an international panel sponsored by NASA and NOAA; scientists expect its activity to quickly ramp up towards July 2025, when scientists expect its next predicted maximum to reach its predicted maximum point.

Solar activity releases tremendous amounts of energy and particles that impact Earth. Space weather conditions change due to solar activity, creating unpredictable conditions in outer space that can disrupt satellites, GPS tracking services, radio communications networks, power grids failing, or oil and gas pipelines corroding.

The Carrington Event was the strongest geomagnetic storm ever observed. It was named after British astronomer Richard Carrington, who observed the solar flare that caused it on September 1, 1859.

Telegraph systems around the world went wild as spark discharges shook operators and their papers caught fire, while red, green, and purple auroras filled skies all around Earth as particles and energy from the Sun interacted with Earth’s atmospheric molecules; reports suggested they could even be read easily in daylight.

As far south as Cuba and as far west as El Salvador and Hawaii, auror, or Northern Lights, were visible – even as far south as Cuba and Jamaica, Jamaica, El Salvador, Hawaii.

On March 13, 1989, a second solar flare caused geomagnetic disturbances that interrupted Hydro Quebec in Canada and left six million Canadians without power for nine hours. Furthermore, power surges caused melted transformers in New Jersey.

In December 2005, solar storm X-rays disrupted GPS navigation and satellite-to-ground communications signals for about 10 minutes.

NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center monitors active regions of the Sun, provides warnings and alerts of dangerous space weather conditions, and tracks any changes within these regions.

Quick Facts

Lengths of the day: 25 days on the equator, and 36 days at each pole.

Length: The Sun does not have a “year” per se. The Sun orbits around the Milky Way’s centre every 230,000,000 Earth years. It brings with it planets, asteroids, and comets.

Star Type: Yellow dwarf main sequence star G2 V

Surface temperature: (Photosphere) 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,500 degrees Celsius)

Corona temperature: up to 3.5 million degrees Fahrenheit (2 million degrees Celsius)

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