The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to
The … See more

The English word sun developed from Old English sunne. Cognates appear in other Germanic languages, including West Frisian sinne, Dutch zon, Low German Sünn, Standard German Sonne, Bavarian Sunna, Old Norse sunna, … See more

The Sun consists mainly of the elements hydrogen and helium. At this time in the Sun's life, they account for 74.9% and 23.8%, respectively, of the mass of the Sun in the photosphere. All heavier elements, called … See more

The core of the Sun extends from the center to about 20–25% of the solar radius. It has a density of up to 150 g/cm (about 150 times the density of water) and a temperature of close to 15.7 million kelvin (K). By con… See more

The Sun has a stellar magnetic field that varies across its surface. Its polar field is 1–2 gauss (0.0001–0.0002 T), whereas the field is typically 3,000 gauss (0.3 T) in features on the Sun called sunspots and 10–100 ga… See more

The Sun today is roughly halfway through the most stable part of its life. It has not changed dramatically in over four billion years and will remain fairly stable for about five billion more. However, after hydrogen fusion in it… See more