The sun.

• The sun is at the center of the solar system.

• Its size is thirteen lakh times as that of the earth.

• It is the nearest star to the earth.

• It is an ultimate source of energy for life on earth.

• Its diameter is 14 lakh kms.

• It is composed of 71% hydrogen, 26.5% helium and 2.5% other elements.

• Hydrogen and the helium are the main gases present in the sun.

• Within the sun , hydrogen is converted to the helium due to nuclear fusion releasing a tremendous amount of heat and light.

• It has a surface temperature of about 6000 degree Celsius.

• The temperature at the center is around 15,000,000 degree Celsius.

• Shining surface of the sun is called photosphere, it appears like a disc, radiates energy and acts as a source of energy.

• The outer layer of sun’s atmosphere made up of thin hot gases, is called corona. Corona is visible only during a total eclipse of the sun (or with a special solar telescope called coronagraph).
• The planets travel with the sun through millions of stars in our galaxy at a seed of about 70,000 km per hour.

• The sun is about 150 million kms away from the sun.

• Light (at the speed of 300,000 km per second) takes about 8.5 minutes to reach the earth from the sun.