Interesting Facts About Sun
Most people know that the sun is really a star, one star out of billions. We are interested in the sun because it is the closest star to the earth.
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History
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If the sun was human, it would be entering its mid-life crisis about now, because the sun is middle-aged, meaning it is in the middle of its life. The sun was formed more than 4.5 billion years ago and will keep on shining for about 5 billion more years.
Size
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Earth is quite insignificant in size compared to the sun. Imagine that the sun were hollow, for example. If it were, 333,000 planet earths could fit inside. The sun is so big that it accounts for 99.8 percent of the solar system. Jupiter accounts for 0.2 percent, which leaves only a tiny fraction for the earth.
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Significance
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Most people know that we need the sun in order to support life on this planet. However, in about 1 billion years, the sun will become too hot to support life anymore. Liquid water will cease to exist, and life as we know it will be gone.
Features
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Everyone knows that the sun is hot, but people may not know just how hot it is. The sun's surface, its photosphere, is about 10,000 degrees F. However, its core is about 27 million degrees F.
Misconceptions
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Ancient people thought the sun was a burning ball of fire. Then people believed that the sun was a solid object. The fact is that the sun is 74 percent hydrogen and 24 percent helium.
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References
- Photo Credit Sun image by KPICKS from Fotolia.com
