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Our Star

The Sun is the only star in our solar system and it has provided light and warmth for roughly 4.5 billion years. Without the energy provided by the sun there would be no life on Earth. It takes light 8 minutes to get from the Sun to Earth. 

Solar Eclipse
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Sun Facts

  • The Sun is so big that it would take 1.3 million Earth's to fill it or 109 Earth's across​

  • The Sun is a yellow dwarf star, so although it is massive there are stars several times as large

  • The Sun is the largest object within our solar system, comprising 99.8% of the system’s mass.

  • The Sun is located at the center of our solar system, and Earth orbits 93 million miles away from it.

    • This distance is 1 AU (Astronomical Unit) which is used to measure the distance between the sun and the planets ​

  • The Sun's magnetic field spreads throughout the solar system via the solar wind.

  • The Sun is composed of hydrogen and helium, by number of atoms it is made of 91.0% hydrogen and 8.9% helium. By mass, the Sun is about 70.6% hydrogen and 27.4% helium.

  • The Sun's surface is called the photosphere

  • the field of study of understanding the physics of the sun is called heliophysics 

  • At the equator, the Sun spins once about every 25 days, but at its poles the Sun rotates once on its axis every 35 Earth days.

  • The Sun's core is about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius).

  • The Sun’s visible surface sometimes has dark sunspots, which are areas of intense magnetic activity that can lead to solar explosions.

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