Sun

The Sun is a giant ball of gas that rises in the sky every morning and provides us with light and heat. But in fact, the Sun is a star! This type, known as a "dwarf star", is just one among billions of stars in the sky. Without the Sun, our Earth and other planets would be dark and freezing. In short, there would be no life without the Sun!

📏 How Big Is the Sun?

• The Sun’s diameter is approximately 1,400,000 kilometers! That is equal to exactly 109 Earth diameters.
• It would take one million Earths to fill its interior.
• The Sun’s mass (that is, its weight) is exactly 333,000 times that of Earth.
• The Sun is so massive that nearly 99.86% of the entire Solar System’s mass comes from it!

🌌 Where Is the Sun?

The Sun is located in one of the arms of the Milky Way, a massive galaxy, near the spiral structure called Orion.

• It is 150 million kilometers away from Earth.
• Its distance from the center of our galaxy is approximately 28,000 light-years! (A light-year is the distance light travels in one year.)

🚀 How Does the Sun Move?

The Sun rotates on its own axis and also orbits around the center of the galaxy.

• A full rotation at its equator takes 25 days, while at its poles it takes 36 days.
• Together with the Solar System, it completes one full orbit around the galactic center approximately every 250 million years.

🌡️ The Sun’s Surface

The Sun’s outer layer consists of three layers:

• Photosphere (light sphere): This is the visible surface. Our light comes from here!
• Chromosphere (color sphere): During an eclipse, it appears as a thin red ring.
• Corona (crown sphere): This is the outermost layer and has an incredibly high temperature: it can reach up to 2 million °C!

⚡ How Is Energy Produced in the Sun?

The Sun converts four million tons of matter into energy every second! This energy is first produced in the core and then travels outward through the inner layers. The sunlight that reaches our hands may have been generated one million years ago! And this light takes approximately 8 minutes and 20 seconds to reach Earth.

🧲 The Sun’s Magnetic Power

The Sun is extremely powerful magnetically. On its surface, eruptions, sunspots, and massive plasma loops (loop structures) occasionally occur. These phenomena can even affect weather patterns and satellites on Earth.