Interesting Sun Facts

Facts on the Sun

The Sun is the largest object in the solar system. The sun contains more than 99.8% of the total mass of our Solar System. It is a sphere of hot gases. It is composed of 70% hydrogen, 28% helium, 1.5% carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen, and 0.5% all other elements. The Sun’s temperature is roughly 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit at the surface and 27,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit at the core.

The Sun’s energy output is megawatts. The sun energy is produced by nuclear fusion reactions. Each second about 700,000,000 tons of hydrogen is converted to about 695,000,000 tons of helium and 5,000,000 tons of energy in the form of gamma rays. As the energy travels out toward the surface, it is continuously absorbed and re-emitted at lower and lower temperatures so that by the time it reaches the surface, it is primarily visible light. For the last 20% of the journey to the surface the energy is carried more by convection than by radiation.

The average distance from the Earth to the Sun is 93 million miles. It takes light eight and a half minutes to travel from the Sun to the Earth. The speed of light in a vacuum is 299,792,458 meters per second (which is approximately 186,282.397 miles per second, or 670,616,629.4 miles per hour).

The diameter of the Sun is 870,000 miles, 109 times larger than the Earth’s. Its volume is big enough to hold over 1 million Earths.

We hope you have enjoyed these interesting sun facts.