Embedded Files
Back To Top
Back To Top
Exploring The Sun
From Earth
From Outer Space
Sun Atmosphere
Fascinating Facts About the Sun
The sun is the closest star to the Earth
The sun has a crown
The element helium got its name from the Sun.
The sun is indeed the closest star to Earth and the only star in our solar system. It is the center of our solar system, and its gravity holds the solar system together. Everything in our solar system revolves around it, the planets, asteroids, comets, and tiny bits of space debris.
In other worlds: The Sun holds the solar system together, keeping everything from the biggest planets to the smallest debris in its orbit.
The Sun's corona is the beautiful crown-shaped glow that becomes visible to us on Earth during a total solar eclipse. Strangely, although the corona is a million times dimmer than the solar surface beneath, it is a million kelvin hotter.
Helium, the second most abundant element in the universe, was discovered on the sun before it was found on the earth. The Sun is a huge ball of hydrogen and helium held together by its own gravity.
The Sun has several regions. The interior regions include the core, the radiative zone, and the convection zone.
Did You know?
It takes eight minutes and 20 seconds for the light leaving the sun to reach Earth.
Our Sun is a 4.5 billion year old star. a hot glowing ball of hydrogen and helium at the center of our solar system.
The Sun is about 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from Earth.
Without the sun energy, life as we know it could not exist here on our home planet
The Sun is the largest object in our solar system.
The Sun’s volume would need 1.3 million Earths to fill it.
Its gravity holds the solar system together, keeping everything from the biggest planets to the smallest bits of debris in orbit around it.
The hottest part of the Sun is its core, where temperatures top 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius).
The Sun’s activity, from its powerful eruptions to the steady stream of charged particles it sends out, influences the nature of space throughout the solar system.
Solar wind can cause magnetic storms on Earth
When the sun releases a gust of solar wind, it can cause the outer part of Earth's magnetic field to become disrupted and start moving in a complicated way. As a result, this can create electrical currents in the space surrounding Earth, which can cause the magnetic field to shift even more. This entire process is known as a "magnetic storm.
The mass of the Sun is 500 times greater than that of all the planets around it
The sun makes up 99.866 percent of the mass of the solar system. This means that it weighs about 500 times more than all the planets and asteroids combined. Even the mass of Jupiter is only one thousandth of the mass of our luminary. As for the Earth, it is about 333 thousand times lighter than the Sun.
There are spots on the sun
One interesting aspect of the Sun is its sunspots. Sunspots are areas where the magnetic field is about 2,500 times stronger than Earth's, much higher than anywhere else on the Sun. Because of the strong magnetic field, the magnetic pressure increases while the surrounding atmospheric pressure decreases.
Famous People
Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) was a famous leader and peacemaker from India who spent his life fighting for social justice. He was lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer who became the leader of the nationalist movement against the British rule of India. He helped his country to gain independence from British rule, and taught others to use peaceful protests to get their voices heard.His birthday is now a national holiday in India, and is also honored around the world as an International Day of Non-Violence.
Did You Know?
The sun contains over 99% of the mass in our galaxy.
Over a million Earths could fit inside the sun.
Ideas for Leisure Time
Build things using Legos, building blocks, or other materials.
Engage in art and craft activities: drawing, painting, sculpture, or other art forms.
Learn new skills: Photography, dance, music, or other areas of interest.
The Sun, high energy
and lots of flare
All About the Sun
A star is a hot, glowing ball of gas. When we look up in the night sky, we can see countless twinkling stars.
Can we see any stars during the daytime? Of course!
The light of daytime comes from our closest star: the Sun.
Just how close is the Sun to Earth?
Way, way closer than other stars, but still pretty far away. It’s approximately 93 million miles away from Earth. That’s 400 times farther than the distance between Earth and the Moon!
However, it’s a good thing that Earth isn’t too close to the Sun. If we were too close, it would be way too hot to live here. The Sun’s surface is very hot, and its atmosphere is even hotter. And the Sun’s core is the hottest part of all, at a sizzling 27 million degrees Fahrenheit!
Our Sun is about 100 times wider than Earth, but it is just an average sized star. Astronomers have found some stars that are 100 times bigger than the Sun and others that are 10 times smaller.
Life Cycle of the Sun
The Sun is also right in the middle of its lifecycle. Right now, our Sun is in a stage called yellow dwarf. It is about 4.5 billion years old. In another 5 billion years the Sun will become a big, cool star called a red giant. A few billion years after that, it will become a small white dwarf star. It will shrink to around the same size as Earth, but it will weigh 20,000 times more.
We can’t live without the Sun!
We can’t live without the Sun!
Life on Earth depends on the Sun. Here are just a few reasons why:
The Sun’s gravity holds our entire solar system together. Our solar system is even named after the Sun (the Latin word for Sun is “sol”).
Heat from the Sun makes Earth warm enough to live on.
Without light from the Sun, there would be no plants or animals—and, therefore, no food and we wouldn’t exist.
Auroras
Heat and light might be important for life on Earth, but the Sun sends other stuff, too. The Sun sends lots of other energy and small particles toward Earth. Earth’s protective magnetic field and atmosphere shields us from most of the energy and particles. But sometimes a big stream of these particles reaches Earth and interacts with the gases at the outer edge of our atmosphere. This causes streams of light in the sky, called auroras.
The Sun’s Neighbors
The Sun’s Neighbors
In our solar system, the closest planet to the Sun is Mercury. Our Sun’s closest star neighbor is called Proxima Centauri. It is approximately 4 light-years away.
What does the Sun look like?
What does the Sun look like?
First of all, you should never look directly at the Sun without very special protective eye wear. But NASA has many great pictures of the Sun for you to look at! Scientists use telescopes with filters to capture images of the Sun. These images help us learn about our star. The photo below was taken by a NASA spacecraft called the Solar Dynamics Observatory.
Have any spacecraft visited the Sun?
Have any spacecraft visited the Sun?
A spacecraft would easily burn up if it tried to fly into the Sun. However, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe is flying closer than any other robotic explorer ever has. It will be flying inside the Sun’s atmosphere, or corona. This spacecraft will help us learn more about how the Sun works and how solar activity starts. This helps us to be more prepared!
More fun facts about the Sun!
The Sun goes through ups and downs in activity like solar flares. It gets more active with more sunspots and then less active over a period of 11 years. This is called the solar cycle.
The Sun has been getting slowly brighter since it was born. A couple of billions of years ago, the Sun was a little dimmer than it is now.
The Sun contains almost ALL of the material in our solar system. 99% of it. All the planets, asteroids and comets add up to less than 1% of the total.
The Sun is so far away that it takes light about 8 minutes and 20 seconds for it to get to us – and light is the fastest thing in the universe.
The Basics
What is it? The Sun is a star, the central star of our solar system. It is a giant ball of hot plasma, heated by nuclear fusion reactions at its core.
How big is it? The Sun is about 109 times wider than Earth and has a mass about 333,000 times greater than Earth.
How hot is it? The Sun's surface temperature is about 5,500 degrees Celsius (9,932 degrees Fahrenheit). The core is much hotter, at about 15 million degrees Celsius (27 million degrees Fahrenheit).
How far away is it? The Sun is about 149.6 million kilometers (93 million miles) away from Earth.
Structure:
Core: The core is the center of the Sun, where nuclear fusion takes place. This is where hydrogen atoms are fused together to form helium atoms, releasing a tremendous amount of energy.
Radiative zone: The radiative zone is a layer surrounding the core where energy is transferred outward by radiation.
Convective zone: The convective zone is a layer above the radiative zone where energy is transferred outward by convection, which is the movement of hot fluids.
Photosphere: The photosphere is the visible surface of the Sun. It is the layer from which most of the Sun's light is emitted.
Chromosphere: The chromosphere is a thin layer of gas above the photosphere. It is visible during a solar eclipse as a reddish ring around the Sun.
Corona: The corona is the outermost layer of the Sun. It is a hot, tenuous plasma that extends millions of kilometers into space.
Importance:
The Sun is the source of most of the energy for life on Earth. Sunlight provides the energy for photosynthesis, which is the process by which plants and algae convert sunlight into energy. This energy is then passed up the food chain to support all other life on Earth.
The Sun also influences Earth's climate. The amount of sunlight that reaches Earth varies throughout the year, which causes the seasons. The Sun's activity also affects Earth's magnetic field, which can in turn affect the aurora borealis and aurora australis.
The Sun is a source of light and heat for the planets in our solar system. Without the Sun, the planets would be cold and dark.
How Old Is the Sun? Is it really old? Or not so much?
How Old Is the Sun? Is it really old? Or not so much?
Our Sun is 4,500,000,000 years old. That's a lot of zeroes. That’s four and a half billion.
How do we know the Sun's age?
How do we know the Sun's age?
How do we know how old it is? We look at the age of the whole solar system, because it all came together around the same time.
To get this number, we look for the oldest things we can find. Moon rocks work well for this. When astronauts brought them back for scientists to study them, they were able to find out how old they are.
How long will the Sun shine?
How long will the Sun shine?
If our Sun is four and a half billion years old, how much longer will it shine? Stars like our Sun burn for about nine or 10 billion years. So our Sun is about halfway through its life. But don’t worry. It still has about 5,000,000,000—five billion—years to go.
When those five billion years are up, the Sun will become a red giant. That means the Sun will get bigger and cooler at the same time. When that happens, it will be different than the Sun we know today. As a red giant, our Sun will become about 2,000 times brighter than it is now!
Here are some additional facts about the Sun:
The Sun is about 4.6 billion years old.
The Sun will continue to shine for another 5 billion years before it runs out of fuel and begins to die.
The Sun is the only star in our solar system that can be seen with the naked eye.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse