The Sun is the center of our solar system, with 9 planets, asteroids and other objects rotating around

it. One of 100 billion stars in our galaxy, the Sun provides light and heat to the orbiting planets. It is extremely large compared to the Earth. The temperature inside the Sun is extremely high, being driven by nuclear fusion reactions. The surface of the Sun gives off visible light, charged particles and occasionally higThe Sun is 1,390,000 km in diameter. That compares with 12,756 km for diameter of the Earth. In other

words, the diameter of the Sun is over 100 times the diameter of the Earth.hMass The mass of the Sun is about 2 x 1030 kilograms (2 followed by 30 zeros). It is one of the larger stars in our Milky Way galaxy. The median size of stars in our galaxy is less than half the mass of the Sun. In comparison, the Earth is 6 x 1024 kg. This means that the mass of the Sun is over 300,000 times greater than that of the Earth.

Distance
The Sun is 149,600,000 km (92 million miles) from the Earth. Since the speed of light is 303,000 km/sec (186,000 miles/second), it takes the light slightly over 8 minutes to get from the Sun to the Earth. The distance of the Sun to the Earth is called an Astronomical Unit (AU) and is sometimes used to denote large distances that are less than a light year.

Characteristics
The Sun consists of about 70% Hydrogen, 28% Helium and 2% of metals such as iron. Other characteristics are its rotation, temperature, and radiation.

Rotation
The Sun rotates on its axis, which is approximately the same axis that most of the planets revolved around the Sun. Since the Sun is primarily very hot gas, the surface at the

equator rotates once every 25.4 days. The rotation near the poles is around 36 days. Also the surface swirls in high and low pressure areas, similar to those that occur on Earth. The rotation of the Sun and the inclusion of iron in its core cause it to have a magnetic field, which is considerably more than the Earth's magnetic field.

Temperature
Its temperature is extremely hot, with the surface being about 5000 C and the center core at 15,600,000 C. The high temperature in the core, along with extreme pressure from the Sun's mass, result in nuclear fusion reactions. Two Hydrogen nuclei (protons) combine with two neutrons to form a Helium nucleus plus a release of energy.

Radiation
The energy released from the fusion reactions near the Sun's core is in the form of very high frequency electromagnetic waves called gamma rays. As this radiation moves towards the Sun's surface, it is absorbed by atoms in the Sun's interior, increasing their kinetic energy. After absorption, the rays are then reemitted at lower frequencies. This process continues until the radiation reaches the Sun's surface. By that time it is primarily visible light.

Surface effects

The surface of the Sun is called the photosphere. Some areas of the Sun's surface are hotter than the average 5000 C temperature and some are cooler. The cool areas look dark in comparison with the surrounding regions. They are called sunspots and are at about 3800 C. The chromospheres lie above the photosphere. Above that is the corona which extends millions of kilometers into space and is visible only during a total solar eclipse. energy particles.