The Sun is a star – a
vast sphere of luminous gas. Its light is a by-product of gas-fuelled nuclear
reactions in its core. It shines steadily now, but in about five billion years
it will swell up before dying as a cold, dark cinder in space. The Sun is
332,945 times more massive than Earth, and 750 times more massive than all of
the planets in the Solar System put together.
Ø 1.3 million Earths could fit inside the Sun
Ø 600 million tonnes of the hydrogen gas converted to
helium every second in the core of the Sun
Ø 220 km/sec is
the speed at which the Sun is moving around our galaxy’s centre
Ø 220 million years it takes the Sun to orbit our
galaxy once
Weird but true
The Sun’s gravity pulls
gas inwards, but the pressure of the gas at the centre pushes outwards. The two
forces balances to give the Sun its ball sphere.
More about the Sun
Ø About 75 per cent of the Sun is hydrogen, most of
the rest is helium.
Ø The Sun is
about 4.28 light years from its nearest starry neighbour, Proxima Centauri.
Ø The Sun is about 5 billion years old. That’s a lot
of candles!
Ø It is about 1.4 million km (870,000 miles) across.
Ø Eight planets orbit around the Sun – only about 4
per cent of the stars in the sky have planets.
Night lights
Ø Material streams from the Sun’s corona (outer layer)
and is known as solar wind.
Ø Solar wind travels towards Earth at about 450 km/sec
(280 miles).
Ø The wind causes gas particles above Earth’s Polar
Regions to glow and give colourful light displays called auroras.
What about us?
We should never, ever,
look directly at the Sun. it emits dangerous radiation that can damage cells at
the back of your eyes and cause blindness.
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