Sun, Facts

The sun contains 99.85% of the mass in the solar system.

Classified as a G2 dwarf due to its size, heat, and chemical makeup, the sun is a medium-sized star.

Based on the average life of a G2 star, the present age of the sun is estimated to be 4.6 billion years, halfway through its lifetime.

Four million tons of hydrogen are consumed by the sun every second.

Approximately 109 planet Earths would fit on the surface of the sun and more than one million planet Earths would fit inside of the sun.

Every 11 years, solar activity surges. The sunspots that pepper the sun explode, hurtling massive clouds of gas through the solar system.

The sun is 92.96 million miles away from Earth.

At its core, the sun’s temperature is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit.

The sun rotates on its axis once every 25.38 Earth days or 609.12 hours.

A person weighing 150 pounds on Earth would weigh 4,200 pounds on the sun because the sun’s gravity is 28 times that of Earth.

The sun radiates heat and a steady stream of charged particles known as the solar wind, which blows about 280 miles per second.

All planets orbit the sun in the same direction, counterclockwise, and on roughly the same plane, known as the ecliptic.

During a 75-year period beginning in 1645, astronomers detected almost no sunspot activity on the sun. Called the “Maunder Minimum,” this event coincided with the coldest part of the Little Ice Age, a 350-year cold spell that gripped much of Europe and North America.