The sun is the life giving force in our galaxy. Without it, we simply would not survive. Here are the facts on the sun.

Facts on The Sun

At its essence, the sun is a large nuclear reactor. Super dense, this ball of energy emits tremendous amounts of energy in the form of solar radiation, better known as sunlight. As the light moves through the galaxy, it provides more than enough energy for life to thrive on the third rock from the sun, the Earth.

Here are some facts on the sun to consider:

• The sun is 109 times larger than the earth.
• Light travels over an average of 93 million miles from the sun to the earth in less than 9 minutes.
• The temperature of the surface of the sun is roughly 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
• The temperature at the center of the sun is believed to be 27,000 degrees.
• The sun is primarily made up of hydrogen and helium.
• Being primarily gas, different parts of the sun rotate at different rates. The equator does one full rotation every 25 days. Near the poles, a rotation takes 35 days.
• Sunspots are cool areas on the surface of the sun.
• The energy contained in sunlight hitting the earth in one day could power all of our energy needs for one year if harnessed.
• The sun has an extremely strong magnetic field, which extends beyond all of the planets in the solar system.
• The aurora borealis [northern lights] is caused by solar particles hitting the earth atmosphere in areas where the magnetic field of the earth is close to the surface.
• The sun is about 4.5 billion years old and has used up about half of its fuel.
• The sun will run out of hydrogen in another 4.8 billions years.
• Of all known stars, the sun is in the top 10 percent of the largest.

As our technological abilities grow, we learn more facts on the sun. Some are suggesting correlations between sunspots and ice ages on earth. What is undisputable, however, is the sun is an abundant energy source of clean energy, something we should try to take advantage of.