The Sun Page 1 of 3

Sun

NASA image

Mass
332,800
(Earth=1)
Mean
diameter 1392 Earth's Sun is a medium-sized star which lies
on the main sequence with 90% of the known
(106 m) stars. It has a effective surface temperature is
5780 K, putting it in spectral class G2. Its
Rotation mass is 1.989 x 1030 kg and its mean radius is
26-37 d
period 6.96 x 108 meters. The mass of the sun is over
99.8% of the mass of the entire known solar Index
Mean system, leading de Pater and Lissauer to refer
distance to lightly to the solar system as "the Sun plus Solar
149 some debris". System
Earth, 106 Illustration
km The sun radiates energy at the rate of 3.85
x1026 watts. Just outside the earth's Solar
atmosphere solar energy is received, assuming System

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The Sun Page 2 of 3

normal incidence, at the rate of 1340 watts per Concepts

Density square meter.
1.41 Sun
(water=1) Concepts
Surface References
gravity 274 Chaisson
&
m/s2 McMillan
Ch 16
The orbit of Earth ranges from 1.47 to 1.52 x 1011 meters from the Sun. The
de Pater
average light travel time to the earth is 8.3 minutes.
and
Lissauer
The radius of the sun at 696,000 km is 109 times the Earth's radius. Its surface
Ch 1
gravity is 274 m/s2 or 28.0 times that of the Earth. Its mean density is 1410
kg/m3 or 0.255 times the mean density of Earth.

The composition of the sun is 71% hydrogen, 27.1% helium and less than 2%
of all other elements.

The center temperature is modeled to be 15.5 million K. The Sun is fueled by

the proton cycle of nuclear fusion.

Escape velocity = 618 km/s

Being a gaseous body, the Sun does not have a single

period of rotation like a rigid body. The sunspots
provide a convenient reference for the measurement
of the rotation period at different latitudes. The
period of rotation averages 25.4 days, varying from
34.4 days at the poles to 25.1 days at the equator
(Chaisson). Its axis is tilted 7.25° relative to the
ecliptic.

The visible surface of the Sun (the

photosphere) has a granular
appearance with a typical dimension
of a granule being 1000 kilometers.
The image at right is from the
NASA Solar Physics website and is
credited to G. Scharmer and the
Swedish Vacuum Solar Telescope.
The granules are described as
convection cells which transport
heat from the interior of the Sun to
the surface.

The Sun's apparent magnitude is -26.8 and its absolute magnitude is +4.8 . Its

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The Sun Page 3 of 3

greatest angular diameter as seen from the Earth is 32.5' .

The sun is 7.7 kpc or 25,000 light years from the center of the galaxy and orbits
the galaxy in about 200 million years. This corresponds to an orbital velocity of
230 km/s.

Iradiance curve of the Sun

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