1. Age: The sun is approximately 4.57 billion years old and is the same age as our solar system
2. Mass: The Sun contains 99.86% of all the mass in the entire solar system. The Sun loses 4 million tons of mass per second
3. Earth: There is room for 1,300,000 Earths inside the sun. The sun weighs about 333,000 times as much as the Earth
4. Star: The sun is a star – but only a small one; there are stars up to 40 times bigger than our sun
5. The Milky Way: The Sun is located in the Milky Way galaxy, which contains 200-400 billion stars. The Milky Way is just one of billions of galaxies in the observable universe
6. Circulation: The sun orbits the galactic center (the center of the Milky Way) at a distance of about 26,000 light years. Its orbital period is 225-250 million years
7. The science: The sun is mainly studied using space probes (especially the SOHO probe). Although humans have been studying the sun for a long time, we know relatively little about it
8. Sunlight and activity: Sunlight takes just over 8 minutes to reach Earth and is also more than 30,000 years old because its creation process starts deep in the center of the sun. Changes and activity on the sun’s surface manifest on the sun in the form of sunspots, solar flares and solar wind. Solar activity can be seen and felt on Earth as southern and northern lights, as well as disruptions to our radio communications and electricity supply
9. Wind and weather: The sun is the driving force for wind and weather on Earth, and also accounts for about 1/3 of the tidal action in the oceans (the moon accounts for the rest)
10. Energy: Sunlight is Earth’s primary energy source. Earth’s second energy source is fissile materials that originate from the death of another star and are trapped in the Earth’s crust. It is these materials that create geothermal energy (which powers volcanoes, for example) and also enables humans to utilize nuclear reactors

Fact: The sun is only a small star; there are stars 40 times bigger

 

Theoretical facts about the evolution of the sun

These facts aren’t entirely factual – just plausible theories (which also applies to some of the 10 facts above!):

• Creation: The sun was created when a giant molecular cloud – consisting primarily of helium and hydrogen – collapsed. This collapse likely spawned many other stars as well
• Today: Today, the sun is about halfway through its lifespan
• 1 billion years: In about 1 billion years, no life will be able to exist on Earth
• 2 billion years: In about 2 billion years, all water on Earth will have evaporated due to matter lost by the sun
• 4-5 billion years: In 4-5 billion years, the sun will contract, get hotter and evolve into a red giant star
• Earth: Earth will not survive the sun’s evolution into a red giant, as the sun will expand so much that its radius will exceed Earth’s orbit, making Earth’s existence impossible. The sun’s radius at this point will be 250 times its current
• The planets: By this time, however, the planets in the solar system will have already been pushed out of the solar system as the sun will have lost about 30% of its mass. However, other theories suggest that the planets will be swallowed up by the sun at this point
• White dwarf: After being a red giant, the sun will evolve into a so-called ‘white dwarf’. The sun remains in this phase for many billions of years
• Black dwarf: It is believed that the sun will then evolve into a so-called ‘black dwarf’. However, there are no black dwarfs in the universe yet, as the evolutionary time for a black dwarf is longer than the still young age of the universe of about 13.7 billion years

 

Facts about the sun as a star

Sun profile
Mass:	1,9891×1030 kg
Diameter:	1,392,000 km
Perimeter:	700,000 km
Average distance from Earth:	149,600,000 km
Luminosity:	3.846×1026 W
Surface temperature:	5.515 °C