30 Fun Facts about the Sun | Facts about the Sun for Kids

Are you trying to find some fun facts about the sun, for your kids’ science classes so they can learn about the solar system? We’re adding this fascinating trivia to the list of amazing things we can thank the sun for, like warm days, blossoming flowers, our weather patterns, the water cycle, and much more.

Introduction

At the core of our solar system lies our Sun, a yellow dwarf star that has been around for 4.5 billion years. It is a bright, luminous orb made of hydrogen and helium.

The sole star in our solar system, it is located around 150 million kilometers, or 93 million miles, from Earth. Life on Earth as we know it would not be possible without the energy of the Sun.

Equator circumference	4,379,000km
Radius	695,700km
Star type	Yellow dwarf
Temperature	5,973°C to 15,000,000°C
Average orbital speed around the Milky Way	720,000km/h (200km/s)
The average time is taken to rotate on an axis	27 Earth days
Number of planets	8

General Facts about the Sun

Why is the Sun famous?

The sun is a common star, one of around 100 billion in the Milky Way galaxy. The sun has a huge impact on our world because it controls the seasons, climate, weather patterns, ocean currents, and photosynthesis, which allows plants to survive.

Does the Sun rotate?

Indeed. The Sun rotates because plasma flows across its surface, despite not being as solid as Earth. The Sun rotates once on its axis every 27 Earth days on average, while various portions of the Sun move at varying speeds. The polar areas revolve over thirty days, whereas the equatorial regions rotate in just twenty-four.

Fun Facts about the Sun

Do you believe that you are an expert on the Sun? Rethink your thoughts. Following are the facts about the sun While some may be completely new to you, others you may already be familiar with.

More than a million Earths might fit within the sun due to its immense size. Whoa!
The sun is not a planet, as you may have known. It is, in fact, the sole star in our solar system.
Ever pondered, “What is the sun’s size?” The diameter of that warm, bright beam of light in the sky is an incredible 865,370 kilometers.
Since the sun is so far away from Earth, it takes eight minutes for sunlight to reach us. This is identified as the speed of light.
Estimated age of the sun is 4.5 billion years. It was created when a gas and dust nebula that was swirling collapsed, taking the form of a disk.
The sun gets hotter and brighter as it produces more helium. It has taken billions of years for this process to continue.
Cooler portions of the sun’s surface that seem darker than their surroundings are called “sunspots.” There may be sunspots bigger than Earth.
The sun spins on its axis once every 27 days on average, although the speeds at which its outer and inner layers spin differ.
The sun is a steaming ball of plasma rather than a solid mass because its primary constituents are hydrogen and helium.
At 9,932 degrees Fahrenheit, the photosphere the surface of the sun is scorching. That almost makes a scorching heat seem bearable.
The sun is still around 94.5 million miles distant from Earth, despite appearing to be a massive sphere! That is 400 times further away than the Earth is from the moon.
Around the world, the sun has been a symbol in several civilizations, religions, and mythology. Ra, the sun god, was revered by the ancient Egyptians, for instance.

Facts about the sun for kids

The solar system is 4.5 billion years old.
The sun’s gravity grasps the solar system together.
The sun would require 1.3 million Earths to fill it in terms of volume. That is strange!
About 93 million kilometers between Earth and the sun.
The sun’s core is 27 million degrees Fahrenheit, which is the hottest part of the sun.
The sun is monitored by NASA and other international space agencies.
Spacecraft dedicated to studying the sun include Solar Orbiter, Parker Solar Probe, Hinode, SOHO, IRIS, ACE, WIND, Solar Dynamics Observatory, and STEREO.
Although it appears solid from our vantage point, the surface we perceive is really referred to as the photosphere. The sun is actually simply a ball of extremely heated plasma.
In 25 Earth days, the sun completes one revolution. Every thirty-six Earth days, the sun spins once on its axis at its poles.
Even though it happened 4.6 billion years ago, part of the dust is still present in the dust rings that are now around the sun.

4 Interesting Facts about the sun

The Loneliest Number Is the Sun

Situated far out on the inner rim of the Milky Way’s Orion Arm, the sun is rather alone. Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf, is its closest star companion and is located at 4.24 light-years distant.

Like a Star in the Heavens

Carbon diamond that has crystallized from white dwarf stars. A white dwarf typically weighs ten billion trillion carats. According to Travis Metcalfe of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, our sun will transform into a diamond that lasts forever in around five billion years.

Solarmax

The next solar maximum, or solar max, is expected in 2013. During this time, astronomers predict an increase in solar flares, solar storms, coronal mass ejections, and auroras.

Sun Constant

The average quantity of solar energy that reaches Earth’s atmosphere is known as the solar constant. Approximately 1.37 kilowatts of power per square meter is the solar constant.

Where is the Sun in the Milky Way?

The known cosmos contains an estimated 100 billion galaxies. The Milky Way is home to the Sun and eight of its planets, including Earth. One quintillion kilometers, or 100,000 light years, make up our galaxy.

The Sun is located in the Orion Spur, a spiral arm of the Milky Way. This diverges from the Sagittarius arm of the galaxy. At a speed of 720,000 kilometers per hour, the Sun and our solar system round the Milky Way’s center. One orbit takes 230 million years to complete.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What are interesting facts about the Sun for kids?

It is more than 4.5 billion years old on Earth.
Numerous historical societies believed that the sun was a god.
It is 5,505 °C on the surface of the Sun.
All of the planets in our solar system revolve around our sun.
The light from the Sun reaches Earth in eight minutes.
Helium and hydrogen make up the Sun.

How unique is our sun?

A section of the Universe’s Hall. Among the hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, our Sun is just one typical star. It serves as the foundation for our knowledge of all stars since it is the only one we can view in great detail. The majority of the gas in the Sun is made up of hydrogen and helium.

What is the coolest thing about the Sun?

The Sun is the closest object to a perfect sphere that has been observed in nature, with just a 10 km variation between its polar and equatorial diameters, which is astounding given its enormous immensity.

What Colour is the Sun?

Many people mistakenly believe that the Sun is red, orange, or yellow. But in reality, the Sun is only a mixture of hues that look white to our eyes. Photographs taken from orbit make this simple to notice. Color-separated light from the sun is what makes up rainbows.

What are 3 facts about the Sun’s core?

Despite being composed of gas, the core has ten times the density of lead.
It is also the Sun’s hottest area, with temperatures of around 15 million °C (27 million °F).
The only location in our solar system with temperatures and densities high enough for nuclear fusion to happen spontaneously is the center of the Sun.

What is the hottest part of the Sun?

The Sun’s core, where temperatures may reach 27 million°F (15 million°C), is its hottest region. The photosphere, or the portion of the Sun that we refer to as its surface, is comparatively cold at 10,500°F (5,500°C).

Images are personally made from Canva and is downloaded from Unsplash