Basic data:
Location in solar system: it is the center that which our planets revolve around.
Diameter: 1.392 million km
Distance: One A.U from earth.
Rotational period: the Sun’s rotational axis is tilted by 7.23~ degrees perpendicular to their ecliptic. Yet
unlike Earth and other solid objects the Sun does not rotate uniformly within itself. This is due to the Sun
being a giant ball off gas and plasma therefore different parts of the Sun spin at different rates. The
regions of the Sun near the equator rotate once every 24 days whereas at the Sun’s poles rotate every
36 days. The Sun’s rotation rate decreases with increasing latitude.
Density: 1.41 g/cm^3
Mass: 1.989 x 10^30 kilograms, about 333,000 times the mass of the Earth.
History:
The Sun has always been in its place as our solar system was forming. During the day it would have been
the first object noticed in the sky.
Theories on formation: the Sun started as a large cloud of gas that was polluted by a supernova millions
of years before the collapsing ended. This continued for millions of years before it formed a rotational
disk that had a large central bulge. The Sun would be formed out of this bulge containing the majority of
the mass. The Sun would then collapse on its own gravity until the interior temperatures would become
so high that the heavy hydrogen would begin to fuse and give off thermonuclear energy. This started the
current stage of our Sun’s life.
What orbits around the Sun?
The Sun does not have any of its own moons and rings. However it has celestial bodies that continuously
revolve around it. Our planets that are the smaller bodies include Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter,
Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. These nine planets have a combined total of over 140 moons.
(Mercury and Venues do not have moons). Our solar system also has millions of rocky asteroids and
billions of icy comets. All of these celestial objects are held in place by the Suns gravity.
Structure
The Sun consists of 4 layers. They are the Sun’s core, the innermost part of the Sun. The radiative zone
that surrounds the dense core. The convection zone and the solar atmosphere that is composed of the
photosphere, the chromosphere and the corona.
Chemical composition of the Sun (by mass)
Hydrogen 73%
Helium 25%
Oxygen 0.80%
Carbon 0.36%
Iron 0.16%
Neon 0.12%
Nitrogen 0.09%
Silicon 0.07%
Magnesium 0.05%
Surface conditions
Explained in the structure of the Sun
Missions to the Sun
We are not able to physically explore the Sun due to its immense heat and radiation conditions and is
unsuitable for life. But there have been un-manned missions to observe the Suns physical conditions.
Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE), Global Geospace Geoscience (GGS) WIND and Hinode (Sunrise).
Facts about the Sun.
About one million earths could fit inside the Sun
The Sun will eventually consume the Earth. As the Sun reaches the end of its life cycle it will expand to
the point that it will engulf Mercury, Venus and the Earth. It will become a red giant at this stage.
After its red giant phase, the Sun will then collapse, retaining its mass and become a white dwarf. It will
have a similar volume of earth.
The Sun makes up for about 99.86% of the mass in our solar system.
About every 11 years the Sun will reverse its overall magnetic polarity. Its north pole becomes its south
pole and vice versa.
100,000,000,000 tons of dynamite would have to be detonated every second to equal the energy
produced by the Sun.
Mysteries
Solar Pole Temperature Mismatch
The South Pole and the north pole of the Sun are not the same temperatures. The South Pole is cooler
than the North Pole by 80,000 Kelvin. Scientists are confused by this since the effect appears to be
independent of the magnetic polarity of the Sun.
Solar Coronal Heating
In our atmosphere, the higher you go, the colder it is. The Suns atmosphere is hotter than its
photosphere. These temperatures are comparable to its core.