What is the Sun? The Sun is a Star, but seen close-up. The Sun is giant ball of very hot, mostly ionized hydrogen gas that shines under its own power.

The Sun IS NOT an average, yellow star. What is the Sun?

Surface Temperature 5800 K

The Sun produces all the colors of the rainbow in roughly equal amounts, which is white light. If the Sun were yellow, then white T-shirts would look yellow in the mid-day sunshine. When you observe the Sun safely, by projecting its image through a pinhole camera or a telescope, you see that it is white. Don’t stare directly at the Sun! The UV radiation can damage your eyes. The Sun is White

The Sun is Above Average Most stars in the Universe are small, cool, low-mass dwarfs. The Sun is larger, hotter, and more massive than these. There are stars that are much larger, very hot, and many times more massive than the Sun. But these stars are quite rare compared to the Sun or the low- mass stars. The Sun is also not median, mid-range, or most frequent (mode) in the measures of size, temperature, brightness, or mass.

PropertySunRange for Stars in the Milky Way relative to the Sun Radius696,000 km (109 times Earth’s radius)1x10 -1 – 2x10 3 (more stars smaller than larger) Rotation Rate27 days (equator) to 31 days (poles) Luminosity (Power Output) 3.8 x watts4x10 -2 – 9x10 6 (more stars less luminous than more luminous) Surface Temperature 5,800 K (average)1.5x10 3 – 3x10 4 K (more stars cooler than hotter) Mass2 x kg8x10 -2 – 3x10 2 (more stars less massive than more) Composition70% Hydrogen, 28% Helium, 2% heavier elements (by percentage of mass) Typical for Pop I, Pop II stars are more metal poor Age4.8 billion years of an expected 10 billion year lifetime 10 5 – yrs, More older stars than younger stars Properties of the Sun