Facts about Sun

Here are some interesting facts about Sun.
1. The Sun is a star at the centre of our Solar system. The Sun is the closest star to the Earth and is 149.60 million kilometres (92.96 million miles) away.

2. The sun is orbited by nine major planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto (a dwarf planet).

3. The Sun was formed over four and a half billion years ago. The present age of the sun is estimated to be 4.6 billion years, halfway through its lifetime.

4. Approximately 109 planet Earths would fit on the surface of the sun and more than one million planet Earths would fit inside the sun.

5. Approximately every 11 years, the sun reverses its overall magnetic polarity. Its north magnetic pole becomes a south pole, and vice versa.

6. The sun rotates on its axis once every 25.38 Earth days or 609.12 hours.

7. The sun contains 99.85% of the mass in the solar system.

8. The sun radiates heat and a steady stream of charged particles known as the solar wind, which blows about 280 miles (450 kilometres) per second throughout the solar system.

9. The sun’s gravity is 28 times that of Earth.

10. The Sun’s visible surface is called the photosphere. The temperature of the photosphere is about 6000 degrees Kelvin.

11. The Sun’s atmosphere is called the chromosphere, where temperatures can reach upto 100,000 Kelvin. There is even more distant region called corona, where the temperature can reach upto 1 million Kelvin.

12. Its core is under its atmosphere. The temperature at the core, or very middle, of the Sun, is about 13.6 million Kelvin.

13. The Sun’s diameter is about 870,000 miles wide. The Sun is 109 times wider than Earth, and is 333,000 times heavier.

14. The Sun is 695,000 kilometres at its equator.

15. Our Sun is approximately 25,000 light-years from the galactic core of our galaxy (the Milky Way).