Top 10 Facts about Sun

The Sun has been both hated and adored throughout human history. What our forefathers understood on a basic level was that the Sun is a necessary component for the majority of life on Earth. Vegetation cannot develop without the energy given by sunlight, and animals cannot survive without vegetation. As our scientific knowledge has grown, so has our awareness that the Earth is merely a component of the larger system known as the Solar System. We’ve also found that, while other planets and bodies in the Solar System don’t have life, the Sun has just as much influence on them.

Sun is mostly hydrogen and helium

Sun

If you add up the elements in the Sun, you’ll find that hydrogen accounts for 74% of its mass, with helium accounting for the remaining 24%. The remainder 2% consists of trace amounts of iron, nickel, oxygen, and all of the other elements found in the Solar System. To put it another way, the Solar System is mainly composed of hydrogen.

Mass of the Sun

Sun

The Sun is a massive sphere with a diameter 109 times that of the Earth. The Sun could fit 1.3 million piles of earth within it. You could also flatten 11,990 Earths to reach the Sun’s surface. That is important, but there are some far larger stars out there. For example, the largest known star will nearly hit Saturn if put within the Solar System.

Speed of Sun

Sun

The Sun is moving at a speed of 220 kilometers per second. It is about 24,000-26,000 light-years from the galactic center and requires the Sun roughly 225-250 million years to finish one orbit of the Milky Way’s center.

Layers of Sun

Layers of the Sun

The light, like an onion, has an inner framework that is not apparent from the surface.  What we will see is the photosphere on the outside. This coating has a temperature of 6,000 degrees Kelvin. Below that is the convective region, where heat gradually spreads, rising from the inner Sun to the ground and columns of cooled material return. The radiative zone follows, where energy can only pass by radiation. Temperatures in the radiative zone can exceed 13.6 million Kelvin or approximately 27 million degrees Fahrenheit.

Size of Sun

Size of the Sun

The Sun is relatively dim in contrast to other stars. There are several stars in the galaxy that are much larger than our sun, up to 700 times its size. Sirius, the brightest star in the sky at night, for instance, has twice the mass. Pollux is much bigger, with a radius eight times that of the sun. In general, the Sun is known as a G2 dwarf star, implying that it is of average size.

Sun is heating up

Sun

The sun is gradually heating up and becoming 10% brighter every billion years. According to predictions, the sun will become so hot in less than a billion years that existence as we understand it will cease to function on Earth. The atmosphere of the Sun is composed of three layers: the photosphere, the chromosphere, and the corona.

Environment of Sun

Sun

The Sun’s environment is made up of three layers the photosphere, the chromosphere, and the corona.

Sun spin at different rates

Sun

The Sun, except the planets, is a massive sphere of hydrogen gas. As a result, different parts of the Sun spin at different rates. Watching the motion of sunspots around the surface allows you to see how much the surface rotates. It takes 25 days for regions near the equator to perform one rotation, while features near the poles will take 36 days. And it appears that the inside of the Sun takes about 27 days.

Spacecrafts for sun

Spacecrafts

The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, designed by NASA and ESA and launched in December 1995, is the most well-known spacecraft designed to study the Sun. Since then, SOHO has been constantly watching the Sun and sending back countless photographs. NASA’s STEREO spacecraft is a more recent venture. In reality, two spacecraft were launched in October 2006.

Magnetic Poles of Sun

Magnetic Poles

The magnetic poles of the sun change their polarity every 11 years. Magnetic north transforms into magnetic south, and vice versa. Particularly when compared to the fairly fragile magnetic poles of Earth. But, given that the sun is a massive ball of continuously moving gas and plasma, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.