interesting facts about the sun

What are some bad things about the Sun?

Path to improved health

• Use sunscreen. The higher the SPF, the more it will protect against UV rays. The FDA suggests using SPF 15 or greater. ...
• Plan your exposure. Avoid direct sun between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. ...
• Take breaks. Too much sun exposure is harmful. Go inside, get in the shade, or use an umbrella.
• Cover up. Wear clothing and hats to protect your skin from UV rays. ...

What are 5 facts about the Sun?

compiled their five favorite facts about the dwarf planet, and we’re here to share them. Pluto Fact 1: The decision to remove Pluto’s planetary status came about because it shares its orbit around the sun with objects called “plutinos.” Pluto Fact ...

What are some interesting things about the Sun?

More Facts about the Sun

• The Sun is actually a star. ...
• We classify the Sun as a G-type main sequence star, and a yellow dwarf star.
• Billions of years in the future, the Sun will actually grow to absorb Mercury, Venus and even our planet Earth.
• After this growth, the Sun will run out of hydrogen. ...

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What are some of the Amazing Facts about our Sun?

Sun Facts

• There wouldn’t be any life on Earth without the Sun. ...
• The Sun’s gravity is what keeps the Earth and other planets that make the solar system in orbit around it.
• The Sun accounts for 99.8% of the mass of our solar system.
• The two main gases that make up the Sun are helium and hydrogen. ...

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What are the 10 interesting facts about the Sun?

Ten Interesting Facts About the SunThe Sun is the Solar System. ... And the Sun is mostly hydrogen and helium. ... The Sun is pretty bright. ... The Sun is huge, but tiny. ... The Sun is middle aged. ... The Sun has layers. ... The Sun is heating up, and will kill all life on Earth. ... Different parts of the Sun rotate at different speeds.More items...•

What are 5 facts about sun?

Here are more fun facts about the sun, provided by the NASA Science Space Place:The sun is a star. ... The sun is the closest star to our planet, which is why we see the sun so big and bright.The Earth orbits around the sun.The sun is way bigger than the Earth. ... It's hot!! ... The sun is 93 million miles away from the Earth.More items...•

What's a fun fact about the Sun?

The Sun is so massive that it accounts for 99.86% of the total mass of the entire Solar System. The Sun currently fuses around 600 million tons of hydrogen into helium every second. It is converting 4 million tons of matter into energy every second as a result. This energy is the source of the Sun's light and heat.

What are 3 good things about the Sun?

7 Health Benefits of SunlightImproves your sleep. Your body creates a hormone called melatonin that is critical to helping you sleep. ... Reduces stress. ... Maintains strong bones. ... Helps keep the weight off. ... Strengthens your immune system. ... Fights off depression. ... Can give you a longer life.

What are 15 interesting facts about the sun?

Fun Facts About the SunThe Sun accounts for 99.86% of the mass in the solar system. ... Over one million Earths could fit inside the Sun. ... One day the Sun will consume the Earth. ... The energy created by the Sun's core is nuclear fusion. ... The Sun is almost a perfect sphere.More items...

Why is the sun so interesting?

The sun is an ordinary star, one of about 100 billion in our galaxy, the Milky Way. The sun has extremely important influences on our planet: It drives weather, ocean currents, seasons, and climate, and makes plant life possible through photosynthesis. Without the sun's heat and light, life on Earth would not exist.

What are some facts of the sun for kids?

Fun Facts about the Sun for KidsThe Sun is over 4.5 billion years old. ... The temperature of the Sun is around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. ... Some areas on the Sun's surface are cooler than others. ... Sometimes gases on the Sun's surface erupt, shooting far out into space. ... The Sun's light reaches the Earth in eight minutes.More items...

How many Suns are there?

There Is Only One Sun The word “sun” is often used to describe many multitudes of stars in our galaxy and beyond, but doing so is a misnomer. The Sun is the name of our star, just as Sirius is the brightest star in Canis Major.

What is the Sun named after?

Sun HeliosThe word sun comes from the Old English word sunne, which itself comes from the older Proto-Germanic language's word sunnōn. In ancient times the Sun was widely seen as a god, and the name for Sun was the name of that god. Ancient Greeks called the Sun Helios, and this word is still used to describe the Sun today.

What are 5 benefits of the sun?

A Healthy Summer: 5 Benefits of Sun ExposureThe sun's light kills bacteria. Surprisingly enough, sunlight does kill bacteria! ... Sunlight reduces your blood pressure. ... Sun exposure reduces cancer risk. ... The sun strengthens your bones. ... Sunlight improves your sleep quality.

Can you live without sunlight?

It is unlikely, though, that an adult could die directly and exclusively from prolonged darkness. Most likely a person would become ill and die from a range of chronic diseases caused by lack of sunshine, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and tuberculosis.

Is 2 hours in the sun too much?

Created: July 22, 2011; Last Update: November 29, 2018; Next update: 2021. We all know that too much sun is bad for your skin....How much UV radiation can your skin handle?Skin typeMaximum amount of timeII20 minutesIII30 minutesIV50 minutesVmore than 60 minutes2 more rows•Jul 22, 2011

How big is the Sun?

The Sun is a main-sequence G2V star (or Yellow Dwarf). The Sun is 109 times wider than the Earth and 330,000 times as massive. The Sun’s surface area is 11,990 times that of the Earth’s. A hollow Sun would fit around 960,000 spherical Earths.

What is the Sun?

The Sun is the star at the centre of our solar system. It is an almost perfect sphere of super-hot gases whose gravity holds the solar system together. The energy produced by the Sun is essential for life on Earth and is a driving force behind the Earth’s weather.

What is the Sun's magnetic field?

The Sun has a very strong magnetic field. Magnetic energy released by the Sun during magnetic storms causes solar flares. We see these as sunspots. In sunspots, the magnetic lines twist and they spin, much like a tornado would on Earth. The Sun generates solar wind. The wind is a stream of charged particles.

How fast does solar wind travel?

This travels at approximately 450 kilometres per second through the solar system. Solar wind occurs when the magnetic field of the Sun extends into space. Sol is the Latin for Sun. This is where the word “solar” comes from, which is used to describe things that are derived from, related to, or caused by the Sun.

What happens when the Sun burns all its hydrogen?

The Sun will consume the Earth. When the Sun has burned all its Hydrogen, it will continue to burn helium for 130 million more years. During this time, it will expand to the point that it will engulf Mercury, Venus, and the Earth. At this stage it will have become a red giant.

How many Earths can fit in the Sun?

One million Earths could fit inside the Sun. A hollow Sun would fit around 960,000 spherical Earths. If squished inside with no wasted space, then around 1,300,000 would fit inside. The Sun’s surface area is 11,990 times that of the Earth’s. The Sun contains 99.86% of the mass in the Solar System.

Why are sunspots darker than surrounding areas?

Sunspots are areas of the Sun’s surface that appear darker than the surrounding areas, this is because they are cooler. They form in areas of strong magnetic activity that inhibit heat transfer.

How old is the Sun?

The Sun accounts for about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System. The Sun is mostly composed of hydrogen (70%) and Helium (28%). The Sun is 4.6 billion years old. The Sun has circled the Milky Way galaxy more than 18 times during its 4.6-billion-year lifetime. The Sun is the closest star to Earth.

Why is the Sun important to life?

Sun is the reason life exists on Earth it is also responsible for the different seasons we experience on Earth. This article lists 30 Interesting and Fun Facts about The Sun that even kids will enjoy. The Sun is a star that is in the center of the Solar System. The Sun accounts for about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System.

What are the two types of radiation from the Sun?

Radiations of the Sun are in two forms, electromagnetic (photons) and particle (electrons, protons, alpha particles , etc.) radiation. In addition to heat and light, the Sun also emits a low-density stream of charged particles (mostly electrons and protons) known as the solar wind which propagates throughout the solar system at about 450 km/sec.

What is the atmosphere of the Sun?

The atmosphere of the Sun is composed of three areas: the photosphere, chromosphere, and solar corona. The visible part of the Sun is called the photosphere. Corona is the Sun’s outer atmosphere with temperatures that range from a few thousand kelvins to a few million kelvins.

Why is the Sun closer to Earth than all other stars?

The Sun is so much closer to Earth than all other stars are that the intense light of the Sun keeps us from seeing any other stars during the day. 1.3 million Earths could fit inside the sun. In just one second the Sun emits more energy than humans have used in the last 10,000 years.

What is the color of the sun?

Sunlight appears yellowish, but it is actually a combination of a rainbow of colors. Solar flares from the Sun are sudden bursts of brightness that happen in places near the sunspots. Solar flares produce bursts of electromagnetic radiation, x-rays, ultraviolet radiation, visible light, and radio waves.

How is the Sun's core produced?

The Sun’s core is around 13600000 degrees Celsius. Sunlight is produced through nuclear reactions in the sun’s core. Originally born as energetic gamma rays, after billions of collisions with matter, this radiation reaches the surface and escapes into space.

When was the Sun formed?

The Sun is the center of our entire solar system and has been since it was formed more than 4.6 billion years ago . However, we haven’t always known that the Sun was the center of our solar system. It wasn’t until the 16th Century with Copernicus’s “Heliocentric” model that it was accepted that the planets actually revolved around this giant star.

How hot is the Sun?

The surface of the Sun is very hot, and on average is around 5,500°c. However, this is nowhere near as hot as the Sun gets in its center, where temperatures can be in excess of 15,000,000°c.

How powerful is the Sun's gravity?

The gravity of the surface of the Sun is around 28x as powerful as the gravity of Earth. The name Sun, unlike the planets which are from Roman and Greek mythology, actually comes from old English. Like any other star, the Sun is made up primarily of hydrogen, with a less amount of helium.

Why do planets orbit the Sun?

The main thing to understand about why the planets orbit the Sun is that they are still moving. If the Sun wasn’t there, they would be still be moving in a direction, like the objects out in the Oort cloud that aren’t as affected by the gravity of the Sun.

How long does it take for the Sun to rotate?

This means that different points on the Sun will actually rotate at different times and speeds. If we look at the Sun’s equator, this rotates fully every 24-25 days. But at the top and bottom of the Sun (the North and South pole), this can take 36 days to rotate fully.

What is the Sun made of?

The Sun is approximately 74% hydrogen, 24% helium, 1.5% carbon and a trace amount of other gases. The two gas giant planets, Jupiter and Saturn, are also made up primarily of Hydrogen and Helium. This leads some astronomers to call them “failed stars”.

How long does it take light to travel from the Sun to Earth?

It takes approximately 499 seconds for light to travel all the way from the Sun to the Earth. We use the AU, or astronomical unit, measurement system when talking about distances in our galaxy. This is the distance between the Sun and Earth, around 93 million miles (150 million kilometers).

How big is the sun?

If the Sun, at the size it is now, was hollow, it could almost fit around 960,000 Earths inside it. But if the Earths were not in their spherical form, this limit could be around 150,000. The area of the Sun is 11,990 times than that of the Earth.

How hot is the sun?

Hot objects generally expand, so in a general case, something that has the temperature of the Sun would definitely explode. But in this case, because of the gravitational force, the Sun does not explode and stays intact. The temperature of the Sun is 5,600 degree Celsius closer to the surface.

What shape is the sun?

The difference in the polar diameter and equatorial diameter is around 10 kilometer. You probably don’t imagine something like the Sun to be uniform like it is. But, when the vast expanse of the Sun is considered, this would mean that the Sun is the closest thing to a perfect sphere.