The Sun
Yellow Dwarf Star
The Sun is a G2V yellow dwarf star holding 99.8% of the solar system's total mass. Its core fuses roughly 600 million tons of hydrogen into helium every second, and the resulting light takes about 8 minutes and 20 seconds to reach Earth.
Field Notes
- The Sun's core reaches about 15 million °C, but its visible surface is a comparatively cool 5,500 °C.
- Light from the Sun's core takes tens of thousands of years to random-walk out to the surface, then only 8 minutes to reach Earth.
- It is currently about halfway through its roughly 10-billion-year hydrogen-fusing lifespan.
| Planet Specifications | |
|---|---|
| Radius | 696,340 km |
| Mass | 1.989 × 10³⁰ kg |
| Distance from Sun | System Center |
| Rotation Speed | 7,189 km/h |