the Sun's vital statistics

The star closest to the Earth is the Sun.

As a star, our Sun is called a yellow dwarf. That's because it appears yellow in colour and is not a giant star! In fact it's a pretty average-sized star. The Sun is also middle-aged. In human terms it is about 40 years old.

It contains mostly hydrogen and helium, as well as small amounts of the other elements such as oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, magnesium and iron.

At the core its temperature is about 15,000,000°C. That's much hotter than on the surface, which is about 6,000°C.

Diameter

1,392,000 km

Mass

2 x 10³⁰ kg

Distance from Earth

149.6 million km

Orbital time around our galaxy

240 million years

Life time as a yellow dwarf

10 billion years

Age

4.5 billion years

Surface Temperature

6,000^oC

How does that compare with the Earth?

Diameter

just over 109 times the diameter of the Earth

Mass

330,000 times the mass of the Earth