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Below are
eleven facts about the Sun and a table of statistics.
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FACT ONE
The official definition of a star like The Sun is a "Yellow
G2 Dwarf." It is an average, middle-aged star.
FACT TWO
If the Sun was brighter, it would be hotter and would have burnt
off its hydrogen fuel billions of years ago. This means that, if
the Sun is any different to how it is now, life on Earth would not exist. It is the
perfect size, perfect age, perfect distance, perfect
temperature and perfect brightness for life to exist on a planet
like Earth.
FACT THREE
Everytime hydrogen nuclei fuse together to form helium nuclei,
which results in a burst of energy, heating up and powering the
Sun, the Sun loses a tiny amount of its mass.
FACT FOUR
If we could remove the bright, glowing surface of the Sun, we
would see nothing other than blackness. Only the Sun's outer
surface shines brightly. The inside of the Sun is complete
darkness.
FACT FIVE
Light from the Sun takes 8 minutes to reach Earth, 40 minutes to reach Jupiter and 7 hours to reach the
edge of the Solar System.
FACT SIX
In the same way that the planets orbit around the Sun, the
Sun orbits around the centre of the Milky Way galaxy, taking 225,000,000 years
to complete a full orbit, travelling at 800,000 kilometres per
hour.
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FACT SEVEN
Many centuries ago, people believed Earth to be the centre of the
Universe, with the Sun as a planet orbiting it. They believed
that the Moon was the closest planet, followed by either Mercury, Venus or the Sun in the next
closest position, with Jupiter and Saturn orbiting furthest away.
FACT EIGHT
The Sun was formed, like every other star, from a huge swirling
cloud of gas called a nebula. The cloud contained all the matter
which went together to form the Sun and its family of planets, moons and hundreds of
thousands of asteroids, meteors and comets. In total, 99.8% of the
matter in the cloud formed the Sun. The other 0.2% formed all of
the other objects in the Solar System. And, just in case you want to know what
the mass of the Sun is, it's about 1,989,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms!
FACT NINE
The Sun's gravitational pull is so strong that, even a dwarf planet 5,900,000,000 kilometres away from it (Pluto) is still kept in orbit of
the Sun. There are more dwarf planets even further away than Pluto which are
kept in orbit by the Sun.
FACT TEN
The Sun is almost half-way through its life, and at its most
stable point in its lifetime. Eventually, it will increase in size, eating up the Inner
Planets
and heating up the Outer Planets and their moons, before
collapsing to become a very small White Dwarf.
FACT ELEVEN
If you could take a journey in an normal airliner flying at its normal speed
(about 644 km an hour) travelling from Earth to the Sun, it would take 20 years
to reach your destination, and that's without stopping.
VIEW FACTS ABOUT OTHER
DESTINATIONS
The Sun -
Mercury -
Venus
- Earth -
The Moon -
Mars
- Jupiter -
Saturn -
Uranus
- Neptune -
Pluto and Dwarf
Planets
STATISTICS
| NAME |
The Sun / Sol |
| MEANING OF
NAME |
Sol is the Roman
god of the Sun |
| NAME
IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES |
Soleil (French),
Sol (Spanish, Portuguese, Latin), Sonne (German), Solnce (Russian),
Helios (Greek) |
| AVERAGE
DISTANCE FROM EARTH |
149,597,890 km /
92,955,820 miles / 1.000 A.U. |
| CLOSEST
DISTANCE TO EARTH |
147,100,000 km /
91,400,000 miles / 0.983 A.U. |
| FARTHEST
DISTANCE FROM EARTH |
152,100,000 km /
94,500,000 miles / 1.017 A.U. |
| DIAMETER
ACROSS EQUATOR |
1,391,000 km / 864,300
miles
Comparison with
Earth: 12,756 km / 7,926 miles
|
| DIAGRAM
SHOWING PLANET'S SIZE COMPARED TO THE SIZE OF EARTH |
COMING SOON! |
| CIRCUMFERENCE
AROUND EQUATOR |
4,379,000 km /
2,715,000 miles
Comparison with
Earth: 40,074 km / 24,901 miles |
| MASS |
1,989,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
kg
Comparison with
Earth 5,973,700,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg |
| TIME TO SPIN
ON AXIS |
25 days, 9 hours
Comparison with
Earth: 23 hours, 56 minutes |
| TIME TO ORBIT
CENTRE OF GALAXY |
225,000,000
years |
| GRAVITY (EARTH
= 1) |
28 |
| ESCAPE
VELOCITY |
2,223,720 km/h /
1,381,760 mph
Comparison with
Earth: 40,248 km/h / 25,009 mph |
| MINIMUM
SURFACE TEMPERATURE |
3,000c / 5,432 F
(in sunspots)
Comparison with
Earth: -88 °c / -126 °F / 185 K |
| MAXIMUM
SURFACE TEMPERATURE |
5,500c / 9,932 F
Comparison with
Earth: 58 °c / 136 ° F / 331 K |
| WEATHER
CONDITIONS |
Hot! |
| CONTENTS OF
ATMOSPHERE |
70% hydrogen,
28% helium, 2% other elements (this is the chemical make-up of the
entire Sun, which is mostly gaseous) |
| KNOWN
SATELLITES |
8 regular
planets - Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus
(discovered 1751), Neptune (discovered 1846).
3 dwarf planets - Ceres (discovered 1801), Pluto (discovered 1930), Eris
(discovered 2003)
There are also thousands of asteroids and comets in orbit around the Sun |
| PAST MISSIONS
(including nationality and year of launch) |
Helios 1
(USA/Germany, 1974), Helios 2 (USA/Germany, 1976), SolarMax (USA, 1980) |
| PRESENT
MISSIONS |
Ulysses
(USA/Europe, 1990), SOHO (USA/Europe, 1995), STEREO (USA, 2006) |
| PLANNED
MISSIONS |
Solar Dynamics
Observatory Mission (2008) |
| NOTABLE
FEATURES |
From Earth, the
Sun appears exactly the same size as the Moon. |
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