- The sun lies at the heart of the solar system, where it is by far the largest object.
- It holds 99.8% of the solar system’s mass and is roughly 109 times the diameter of the Earth — about one million Earths could fit inside the sun.
- The surface of the sun is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,500 degrees Celsius) hot, while temperatures in the core reach more than 27 million F (15 million C), driven by nuclear reactions. One would need to explode 100 billion tons of dynamite every second to match the energy produced by the sun.
- The sun is one of more than 100 billion stars in the Milky Way.
- It orbits some 25,000 light-years from the galactic core, completing a revolution once every 250 million years or so.
- The sun is relatively young, part of a generation of stars known as Population I, which are relatively rich in elements heavier than helium.
- An older generation of stars is called Population II, and an earlier generation of Population III may have existed, although no members of this generation are known yet.
