- By Ridam Sharma
- Thu, 15 May 2025 11:57 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Interesting facts about the Sun: The Sun is Earth's closest star and the solar system's cornerstone. It is a fascinating object that has captivated human beings for thousands of years and continues to do so. It is not just the Earth's primary source of light and energy, but also a dynamic and complex plasma sphere filled with enormous power and influence. From its fiery centre where nuclear fusion fuels its radiance, to the solar winds that mould space weather, the Sun is an essential aspect of human life that is energising all the natural forces on Earth. Therefore, to learn more, here's a list of 30+ fascinating facts about the Sun, according to Science.nasa.gov.
List Of 30+ Interesting Facts About The Sun:
The Sun is approximately 4.6 billion years old.
It is a G-type main-sequence star, which is commonly referred to as a yellow dwarf.
The diameter of the Sun is about 1.39 million kilometres (864,000 miles), which is roughly 109 times larger than Earth.
It holds roughly 99.86% of the solar system's total mass.
The Sun consists primarily of hydrogen (roughly 74-92%) and helium (roughly 7-24%), with small traces of other elements such as oxygen, carbon, neon, iron, and even small traces of gold.
The temperature of the Sun's surface (the photosphere) is about 5,500 °C (9,932 °F).
The core temperature of the sun is approximately 15 million °C (27 million °F).
Energy in the Sun's core is generated by nuclear fusion, where hydrogen nuclei combine to create helium, releasing enormous amounts of energy.
Sunlight from the Sun takes approximately 8 minutes and 20 seconds to arrive on Earth.
The Sun's gravity keeps the entire solar system bound together, with planets, comets, asteroids, and debris in orbit.
The Sun rotates on its axis every 25 to 35 Earth days, with varying rotation rates at the equator and poles because it is a plasma.
The Sun has no solid surface; the visible surface is a layer of hot plasma known as the photosphere.
The Sun's atmosphere consists of three layers: the photosphere, chromosphere, and corona, and the corona is millions of degrees hotter than the surface.
The Sun gives off three types of energy: infrared radiation, visible light, and ultraviolet light.
Solar flares are brief outbursts of brightness due to magnetic field collisions close to sunspots.
The Sun's magnetic field is extremely powerful and generates solar events such as flares, coronal mass ejections, and auroras on Earth.
The Sun has an 11-year solar cycle of magnetic activity, such as sunspot frequency variation and magnetic polarity reversals.
The solar wind is a steady flow of charged particles emanating from the Sun's corona, interacting with Earth's magnetosphere to produce auroras.
The Sun is so enormous that more than a million Earths could be contained within it.
The Sun is moving through space at a speed of approximately 220 kilometres per second.
The Sun's energy output is so huge that it gives Earth more energy in an hour than all of humanity consumes in a year.
The Sun's ultraviolet radiation assists in creating Vitamin D in human beings, but can also hurt eyes and skin.
The ancient civilisations like the Aztecs, Egyptians, Greeks, Incas, and Japanese used to worship sun gods, which highlights the Sun's cultural significance.
The Sun has no moons but is orbited by eight planets, dwarf planets, asteroids, and comets.
The Earth orbits the Sun in an elliptical path, causing seasonal changes and varying Earth-Sun distances throughout the year.
The Sun’s corona can reach temperatures of several million degrees Celsius, much hotter than the surface.
Solar telescopes like SOHO and SDO continuously monitor the Sun to study its behaviour.
The Sun resides in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way galaxy, among billions of other stars within the galaxy.
The Sun's brilliance is comparable to approximately 4 trillion 100-watt light bulbs.
The Sun's gravity is 28 times that of Earth's; an individual weighing 150 pounds on Earth would weigh 4,200 pounds on the Sun.
The Sun produces a continuous flow of solar wind particles moving at a speed of approximately 450 kilometres per second through the solar system.
The energy of the Sun powers Earth's weather and climate processes, using processes such as convection and evaporation.
Skylab first explored the Sun, the first spacecraft launched in 1974.
The Sun's solar flares and coronal mass ejections influence satellite communications and power grids on Earth.