☀ The Star at Our Centre
The Sun
99.86% of all mass in the solar system. The reason everything else exists.
The Sun is not a backdrop. It is the reason everything else exists. A sphere of plasma 1.4 million kilometres across, it contains 99.86% of all the mass in the solar system. Everything — every planet, moon, comet, and asteroid — orbits it, bound by its gravity. At its core, hydrogen is crushed into helium at 15 million degrees, releasing the energy that has powered life on Earth for four billion years. It will do so for another five billion. Then it will end.
"It contains 99.86% of all the mass in the solar system."
Key Data
Diameter (109× Earth)
Core Temperature
Surface Temperature
Age
Remaining Life
Diameter
Mass
Escape Velocity
One Remarkable Thing
The light reaching your eyes right now left the Sun's surface 8 minutes ago. But before it reached the surface, it spent up to 100,000 years bouncing through the Sun's dense interior — an ancient photon finally escaping into space.
Scale Relative to Earth
The Sun's diameter is 1.39 million km — 109 times Earth's. Over one million Earths could fit inside it. The scale above represents just a fraction of the true difference.