YOUR TOP 10 SUN FACTS: Our Sun is not unique in the universe. It is a common middle-sized yellow star which scientists have named Sol. This is why our system of planets is called the Solar System. There are trillions of other stars in the Universe just like it.

1. The sun is a star. This makes it extremely important for life on Earth. The sun provides us with energy, which brings life on our planet. It defines the seasons, the harvests, and even the sleep patterns of all living creatures on Earth.

2. The sun is the closest star to our planet. Imagine two cars on the road during the night with their headlights on. One car is closer to you and the other one is far away. Which headlights would seem brighter and bigger? That explains why we see the sun so big and bright. It is simply the nearest star to Earth.

3. Remember! The Earth orbits around the sun.

4. The sun is way bigger than the Earth. In fact its radius is 109 times bigger than the radius of the Earth. For those of you who are curious, the sun’s Radius is 696,000km and the Earth ﾕ s radius is 6, 376km.

5. DON’T TOUCH THE SUN! IT’S HOT! The sun ﾕ s average surface temperature is 5700 C. Compare that to the Earth’s average temperature, which is 20 C.

6. The sun is 150 million km (93 million miles) away from the Earth.

7. How old is the sun? Can you imagine 4.5 billion years?

8. We know that the Earth’s structure consists of different layers. The sun also has layers but unlike the Earth, the sun is entirely gaseous; there is no solid surface.

9. The sun rotates on its axis approximately once every 26 days. The sun is made of gas, which is why its different parts rotate at different speeds. The fastest rotation is around the equator and the slowest rotation is at the sun’s polar regions (more than 30 days).

10. The sun changes. No matter when or where we look at the sun, we will always see something interesting. Scientists observe these changes by watching the sunspots. They increase and decrease on a regular cycle of about 10.8 years.

The Sun

Like all the other planets in our Solar System, the Earth revolves around a medium-sized star. This star provides all the energy necessary to sustain life on Earth.

Did you know???

The Sun was born in a vast cloud of gas and dust around 5 billion years ago. Indeed these vast nebulae are the birth places of all stars. Over a period of many millions of years, this gas and dust began to fall into a common center under the force of its own gravity.

As it grew, the baby Sun became hotter and hotter. Eventually when it reached a temperature of around 1 million degrees, its core ignited, causing it to begin nuclear fusion When this happened, the Sun began producing its own light, heat, and energy.

We look at the sun rising every day. It’s bright, it’s big and it warms us up. Our sun happens to be the brightest object in our universe and naturally we are really curious to know more about it.Our sun gives us light, heat and energy. It may seem that energy comes from other sources such as gasoline and electricity but the ultimate source of energy for the Earth is nothing else but the sun. Without the sun life on Earth would not exist. It would be so cold that no living thing would be able to survive and our planet would be completely frozen.