Main Characteristics of the Sun

The Sun is the central body of our Solar System. It is a hot rotating gas sphere with a radius of R_S = 6.96 × 10¹⁰ cm and a mass of M_S = 1.99 × 10³³ g. The Sun is 750 times the mass of all other bodies in the Solar System, taken together, and 330,000 times more massive than the Earth. The average density of solar matter is close to ρ_S = 1.4 g/cm³ (which is about 0.256 of the average density of the Earth, ρ_E), in the center of the Sun the density reaches 160 g/cm³, i.e. more than two orders of magnitude higher than the average. On the solar diameter (D_S = 1,390,600 km), a chain of 109 such planets as our Earth could be placed. The Sun is located at a distance of 149,680,000 km from the Earth (this distance is called an astronomical unit, AU). In angular units in the Earth’s sky, the Sun (its diameter) is only about 0.5 degrees. For comparison, note that the average distance from the Earth to the Moon is 384,000 km. With a diameter of the Moon 3476.4 km, its angular size is close to 0.52°, which practically coincides with the angular size of the Sun. That is why total eclipse of both the Sun and the Moon can be observed on the Earth’s surface.

Authors and Affiliations

1. Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation, Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Troitsk, Russia

   Leonty Miroshnichenko

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