The Sun

The Sun, an average-sized, middle-aged star, formed almost 5 billion years ago from a cloud of gas and dust.

Photo by SOHO / ESA / NASA

Size: About 109 Earths would fit side-by-side across the face of the Sun! One million Earths could fit inside the Sun. One large sunspot could hold se eral Earths. !he Sun"s diameter is #$%&000 miles '1.% million (ilometers). Distance from Earth: !he Sun is about 9* million miles '1+0 million (m) away from Earth. Rotation: !he Sun spins on its a,is from east to west. -ts e.uatorial /one rotate once e ery 0% days appro,imately& while its polar regions ta(e o er *0 days to rotate once. Surface: 1eat& deep inside the Sun& rises from the radiati e /one through the con ecti e /one until it bubbles at the surface& the photosphere. At the photosphere& things cool a bit and the gas begins to sin( bac( down through the con ecti e /one. 2hen gas reaches the radiati e /one& it heats up and the whole process starts o er again. !he photosphere is the layer that holds sunspots. !he photosphere is churning and boiling li(e a thic( pot of chili or oatmeal. Although sunspots are ery hot& they are slightly cooler than the rest of the photosphere& so they loo( dar(er. Sunspots ha e a dar( center called an umbra and a lighter ring around the outside called the penumbra. -t ta(es +0 million years for the energy formed deep inside the Sun to reach Earth. Earth only gets one-billionth of the total energy produced by the Sun. Atmosphere: !he Sun"s outer atmosphere is called the corona& and its inner atmosphere is called the chromosphere. Temperature: !he temperature at the Sun"s core is 1+ million (el ins. Other information: !he Sun formed about + billion years ago from a huge cloud of gas and dust. !he Sun is an a erage-si/e& middle-aged star. !he Sun"s core con erts 300 million tons of hydrogen gas into $9+ million tons of helium gas e ery second. !he remaining + million tons of matter are con erted to an amount of pure energy that"s about si, hundred times greater than the amount of water flowing o er 4iagara 5alls produces in one second. 6ight& tra eling at 1#$&000 miles '*00&000 (m) per second& ta(es 7ust o er # minutes to reach Earth from the Sun.

-n both 8ree( and 9oman mythology& Apollo is the god of the Sun. 1e brought life-gi ing heat and light to Earth and was the patron god of musicians and poets.