Amazing Facts about the Sun:
Halfway to the poles: about 28 days
Near the poles: about 35 days
(The sun does not rotate as a solid body!)
© 2001 Museum of Science and Industry. All rights reserved.
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Amazing Facts about the Sun:
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| Average distance from Earth | 93 million miles | |
| Time for light from the sun to reach the Earth | About 8 minutes to reach the Earth | |
| Diameter of the sun | About 865,000 miles. (The diameter of earth at the equator is approximately 8000 miles, so the diameter of the sun is 108 times greater than the diameter of Earth.) If the sun were hollow, it could hold 1,300,000 Earths. | |
| Age of the sun | 4.6 billion years | |
| Expected lifetime of the sun | Another 5 billion years | |
| Mass of the sun | About 2 trillion, trillion, trillion tons; if it were possible to clump all the planets together, the sun's mass would be 750 times larger than all the planets together. | |
| Surface temperature of sun | About 11,000 degrees fahrenheit | |
| Core temperature of sun | About 27 million degrees fahrenheit (which is enough to sustain nuclear reactions) | |
| Composition of sun | At least 94% Hydrogen; remainder is mostly helium; with traces of other elements. | |
| Rotation period | At the equator: 25 Earth Days Halfway to the poles: about 28 days Near the poles: about 35 days (The sun does not rotate as a solid body!) |
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| sun's gravity | 28 times greater than Earth's | |
| sun's activity | The sun goes through an 11-year cycle of activity, in the form of sunspots, solar flares, solar mass ejections, etc. | |
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© 2001 Museum of Science and Industry. All rights reserved.
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