The SUN

The Sun is the largest object of our Solar System and contains almost 99% of overall mass of Solar System. The Sun is amazing and unique for us but in reality it is an “ordinary” star and there are ‘N’ number of similer kind of stars in our Universe.


The surface of the Sun is called photosphere having temperature around 5,500^o C. There are some areas where temperature is less than 3,500^o C. Therefore, these regions looks darker than other surface areas and known as Sunspots. The region Above the surface of Sun is called Chromoshpere.


Sun generates its energy by nuclear fusion of hydrogen nuclei into helium inside its core, where the temperature exceeds 14 million ^oC and enough to start nuclear fusion. The Sun fuses almost 600 million metric tons of hydrogen per second.


Sun Reference Data

Diameter:	1.4 million km (870,000 miles)
Mass:	330,000 x Mass of Earth
Density:	1.41
Solar Wind Speed:	3 million km/hr
Rotation Period at Equator:	25 Earth days
Solar Cycle:	8 - 11 years
Age:	4.5 billion years, 5 billion years remaining
Distance from Earth:	149.6 million km (93 million miles)
Distance to Nearest Star:	4.3 light years
Luminosity:	390 billion billion megawatts
Temperature at surface:	5,500o C (9,932o F)
Temperature at Core:	14 milliono C (22.5 milliono F)
Temperature of Sunspots:	4,000o C (7,232o F)
Rotation Period at Poles:	35 Earth days