This article is about the star. For other uses, see Sun (disambiguation).

The Sun

Observation data

Mean distance from Earth

1.496108 km 8 min 19 s at light speed

Visual brightness (V)

26.74[1]

Absolute magnitude

4.83[1]

Spectral classification

G2V

Metallicity

Z = 0.0122[2]

Angular size

31.6 32.7*3+

Adjectives

Solar

Orbital characteristics

Mean distance from Milky Way core

~2.51017 km 26,000 light-years

Galactic period

(2.252.50)108 a

Velocity

~220 km/s (orbit around the center of the Galaxy) ~20 km/s (relative to average velocity of other stars in stellar neighborhood) ~370 km/s[4] (relative to the cosmic microwave background)

Physical characteristics

Mean diameter

1.392684106 km[5]

Equatorial radius

6.96342105 km[5] 109 Earth[6]

Equatorial circumference

4.379106 km[6] 109 Earth[6]

Flattening

9106

Surface area

6.08771012 km2[6] 11,990 Earth[6]

Volume

1.4121018 km3[6] 1,300,000 Earth

Mass

1.98911030 kg[1] 333,000 Earth[1]

Average density

1.408103 kg/m3[1][6][7]

Density

Center (model): 1.622105 kg/m3[1] Lower photosphere: 2104 kg/m3 Lower chromosphere: 5106 kg/m3

Corona (avg): 11012 kg/m3*8+

Equatorial surface gravity

274.0 m/s2[1] 27.94 g 27,542.29 cgs 28 Earth[6]

Escape velocity (from the surface)

617.7 km/s[6] 55 Earth[6]

Temperature

Center (modeled): ~1.57107 K[1] Photosphere (effective): 5,778 K[1]

Corona: ~5106 K

Luminosity (Lsol)

3.8461026 W[1] ~3.751028 lm ~98 lm/W efficacy

Mean intensity (Isol)

2.009107 Wm2sr1

Age

4.57 billion years[9]

Rotation characteristics

Obliquity

7.25[1] (to the ecliptic) 67.23 (to the galactic plane)

Right ascension of North pole[10]

286.13 19 h 4 min 30 s

Declination of North pole

+63.87 63 52' North

Sidereal rotation period (at equator)

25.05 days[1]

(at 16 latitude)

25.38 days[1] 25 d 9 h 7 min 12 s[10]

(at poles)

34.4 days[1]

Rotation velocity (at equator)

7.189103 km/h[6]

Photospheric composition (by mass)

Hydrogen

73.46%[11]

Helium

24.85%

Oxygen

0.77%

Carbon

0.29%

Iron

0.16%

Neon

0.12%

Nitrogen

0.09%

Silicon

0.07%

Magnesium

0.05%

Sulfur

0.04%

This box: view talk edit

The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields.[12][13] It has a diameter of about 1,392,684 km,[5] about 109 times that of Earth, and its mass (about 21030 kilograms, 330,000 times that of Earth) accounts for about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System.[14] Chemically, about three quarters of the Sun's mass consists of hydrogen, while the rest is mostly helium. The remainder (1.69%, which nonetheless equals 5,628 times the mass of Earth) consists of heavier elements, including oxygen, carbon, neon and iron, among others.[15]

The Sun formed about 4.6 billion years ago from the gravitational collapse of a region within a large molecular cloud. Most of the matter gathered in the center, while the rest flattened into an orbiting disk that would become the Solar System. The central mass became increasingly hot and dense, eventually initiating thermonuclear fusion in its core. It is thought that almost all other stars form by this process. The Sun's stellar classification, based on spectral class, is a G-type main-sequence star (G2V), and is informally designated as a yellow dwarf, because its visible radiation is most intense in the yellow-green portion of the spectrum and although its color is white, from the surface of the Earth it may appear yellow because of atmospheric scattering of blue light.[16] In the spectral class label, G2 indicates its surface temperature of approximately 5778 K (5505 C), and V indicates that the Sun, like most stars, is a main-sequence star, and thus generates its energy by nuclear fusion of hydrogen nuclei into helium. In its core, the Sun fuses 620 million metric tons of hydrogen each second.

Once regarded by astronomers as a small and relatively insignificant star, the Sun is now thought to be brighter than about 85% of the stars in the Milky Way galaxy, most of which are red dwarfs.[17][18] The absolute magnitude of the Sun is +4.83; however, as the star closest to Earth, the Sun is the brightest object in the sky with an apparent magnitude of 26.74.*19+*20+ The Sun's hot corona continuously expands in space creating the solar wind, a stream of charged particles that extends to the heliopause at roughly 100 astronomical units. The bubble in the interstellar medium formed by the solar wind, the heliosphere, is the largest continuous structure in the Solar System.[21][22]

The Sun is currently traveling through the Local Interstellar Cloud (near to the G-cloud) in the Local Bubble zone, within the inner rim of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way galaxy.[23][24] Of the 50 nearest stellar systems within 17 light-years from Earth (the closest being a red dwarf named Proxima Centauri at approximately 4.2 light-years away), the Sun ranks fourth in mass.[25] The Sun orbits the center