1 The SUN is just ONE of about 100 billion STARS in our GALAXY.
2 It has a DIAMETER of 1,390,000 km
3 Its CORE temperature is 15 million º C.
4 Its SURFACE temperature is 5,500 ºC. Cooler (3,800 ºC) surface areas are called SUN SPOTS.
5 It is the LARGEST object in the SOLAR SYSTEM and makes up 99.8% of the total MASS of the Solar System.
6 It consists of 75% HYDROGEN and 25% HELIUM.
7 The ENERGY output of the Sun is about 386 billion megawatts and is produced by NUCLEAR FUSION, using Hydrogen as fuel.
8 Apart from HEAT and LIGHT, the Sun also emits a stream of CHARGED PARTICLES called the SOLAR WIND.
The Solar Wind:-
a Causes Radio INTERFERENCE at certain times
b Produces the AURORA BOREALIS or “The NORTHERN LIGHTS”
c Causes the characteristic TAILS of COMETS.
d Alters the TRAJECTORY of SPACECRAFT
9 The Sun is about 4.5 BILLION YEARS old. It will probably continue to exist in its present FORM for about another 5 BILLION YEARS before RUNNING out of HYDROGEN.
10 There are NINE planets orbiting the SUN (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto)
