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Our Sun Information

More Information:

The Sun is located in the center of our solar system. It controls the weather and climate on all of the planets. The distance between the Sun and the planets determines how much light and heat each planet will recieve. Therefore, planet closer to the Sun will have a higher temperature than a planet that is farther away. 

Profile:

Age: 4.6 Billion Years
Type: Yellow Dwarf (G2V)
Diameter: 1,392,684 km
Circumference at Equator: 4,370,005.6 km
Mass: 1,989,100,000,000,000,000,000 billion kg (333,060 x Earth)
Surface Temperature: 5500 °C

Name of Planet

Distance From Sun

Average Surface Temp.

Mercury

58 million km

350 ºC

Venus

108 million km

460 ºC

Earth

150 million km

20 ºC

Mars

228 million km

-23 ºC

Jupiter

778 million km

-120 ºC

Saturn

1,429 million km

-180 ºC

Uranus

2, 871 million km

-210 ºC

Neptune

4,504 million km

-220 ºC

Pluto

5,913 million km

-230 ºC

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Latest News About The Sun

Missions:

• Solar Probe Plus (2015)

Mission to explore the Sun’s atmosphere

• Solar Dynamics Observatory (2010)

Mission to study the influence of the Sun on Earth & the inner solar system

• IBEX (2008)

Mission to detect the edge of the solar system

• Hinode (2006)

Mission to study the relationship of magnetic energy from the photosphere to the corona

• Stereo (2006)

Mission to study structure and evolution of solar storms

• RHESSI (2002)

Explores particle acceleration and energy release in solar flare

• Genesis (2001)

For two years collected solar wind

• TRACE (1998)

Mission to study three-dimensional magnetic structures emerging through the Sun’s photospere

• ACE (1997)

Designed to study spaceborne energetic particles and provide space weather data

• SOHO (1995)

Solar and Heliospheric Observatory keeping watch on the Sun

• Wind (1994)

Mission to measure interplanetary conditions arising from solar wind

• Yohkoh (1991)

Japanese solar mission with US and UK

• Ulysses (1990)

Mission to investigate sun in three dimensions

• Helios 2 (1976)

Mission to investigate solar processes

• Helios 1 (1974)

Mission to study solar processes and solar-terrestrial relationships

• Pioneer 9 (1968)

Sent to study space from heliocentric orbit

• Pioneer 8 (1967)

Sent to study interplanetary space

• Pioneer (1966)

Identical to Pioneer 6 and put into orbit to study the solar magnetic field

• Pioneer 6 (1965)

First in a series of solar orbiters

The NuSTAR data, seen in green and blue, reveal solar high-energy emission, taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Image Credit & Copyright: NASA/JPL-Caltech/GSFC

NASA captures massive eruption on the sun

June 30, 2015

An arching eruption on the sun was recorded by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory on June 18, 2015. The eruption ultimately grew into a substantial coronal mass ejection, or CME, a giant cloud of solar material.

Strong Sun Flare Could Trigger Earthly Storm

June 25, 2015

Sunspot AR12371 has been very busy, erupting with M-class flares that blasted coronal mass ejections (CME) toward Earth. Auroras have been seen as far south as Arizona. A June 25, 2015 M7.9-class flare produced a coronal mass ejection which could bathe the Earth in geomagnetic storms.

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10 Need-to-Know Things About the Sun:

  1. The Sun is actually a star.

  2. The Sun makes up 99.8% of the mass of the entire solar system.

  3. Since the Sun is not a solid body, different parts of the Sun rotate at different rates. At the equator, the Sun spins once about every 25 Earth days, but at its poles the Sun rotates once every 36 days.

  4. The solar atmosphere is where features, like sunspots or solar flares, are seen.

  5. The Sun is orbited by eight planets, at least five dwarf planets, tens of thousands of asteroids, and hundreds of thousands to three trillion comets and icy bodies.

  6. Without the Sun's intense energy there would be no life on Earth.

  7. The temperature at the sun's core is about 15 million degrees Celsius (27 million degrees Fahrenheit).

  8. Light from the Sun reaches Earth in around 8 minutes due to the speed of light.

  9. The Sun itself is travelling about 220 kilometers per second around the center of the Milky Way

  10. Approximately every 11 years, the Sun reverses its overall magnetic polarity: its north magnetic pole becomes a south pole, and vice versa.

A partially eclipsed setting Sun. Image Credit & Copyright: Andrew Wall

Observation and History

 

Between 1962 and 1971, NASA launched a series of eight orbiting observatories known as the Orbiting Solar Obervatory. Seven of them were successful. They succeeded in analyzing the Sun and photographing the super-hot corona (outer atmosphere of the Sun), among other acheivements. In addition, NASA and the European Space Agency launced the Ulysses probe in 1990. It made the first observations of the Sun's polar regions. In 2004, NASA's Genesis spaceraft was able to return to Earth samples of the solar wind. 

 

To learn more about the missions that have studied the Sun, click on the links under the "Missions" sidebar above. 

Image Credit & Copyright: NASA/SDO/AIA

Venus is the only planet that does not follow the pattern of distance/ surface temperature. This is due to the fact that Venus has an atmosphere and a run-away greenhouse effect.

This can be seen in the following table:

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