The Sun is Earth’s nearest star.
The Sun is a ball of gas that is so hot that it glows, giving off light.
Diameter: | 865,000 miles (1,392,000 km) |
Distance from Earth: | 93,000,000 miles (150,000,000 km) |
Distance from Moon: | 92,761,140 miles (149,615,600 km) |
Image of the sun captured on January 29, 2017 by the SUVI instrument on board GOES-16 NOAA. Credit: NOAA satellite
The surface temperature of the Sun is 11,000 degrees F. The temperature at the center is 27 million degrees F.
- The Sun rotates on its axis about once every 25 days.
- The Sun is so large that a million Earths could fit inside the Sun.
- The Sun’s energy is produced from nuclear fusion reactions. Hydrogen atoms combine to form helium in the core.
- The Sun is in the middle of its lifetime and has about 5 billion more years before it burns itself out.
- Sun was born about 5 billion years ago from a large dark gas cloud in the Milky Way. The planets were formed at the same time.
- Light travels at a speed of 300,000km per second. At this speed, Sunlight takes 8 1/2 minutes to reach Earth.
- Without the Sun’s warmth and light, the Earth would be an icy rock without life.