THE SUN · QUICK FACTS
The Sun is by far the largest object in the solar system. It contains more than 99.8% of the total mass of the Solar System.
Conditions at the Sun's core (approximately the inner 25% of its radius) are extreme. The temperature is 15.6 million Kelvin and the pressure is 250 billion atmospheres. At the center of the core the Sun's density is more than 150 times that of water.
One hundred and nine Earths would be required to fit across the Sun's disk, and its interior could hold over 1.3 million Earths.
It takes several hundred thousand years for photons (light) to escape from the Sun's dense core and reach the surface.
In the same way that the planets orbit around the Sun, the Sun orbits around the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy, taking 225 million years to complete a full orbit, travelling at 800,000 kilometres per hour. |
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