The sun contains more than 99.8% of the total mass of the Solar
System.
When it comes to star size, the Sun is in the top 10% by mass. The Sun is much larger than red dwarfs which are the majority of stars in existence. On ther other hand Betelgeuse is 700 times larger than the sun. There are not many stars that large.
Approximately one million Earths can fit inside the Sun.
The Sun is about 75% hydrogen and 25% helium by
mass. Everything else ("metals") amounts to only 0.1%
The Sun is an active star that displays sunspots, solar
flares, erupting permanencies, and coronal mass ejections.
In addition to heat and light, the Sun also emits a low density
stream of charged particles known
as the solar wind.
The Sun spins around once every 27.4 days.
The Sun loses approximately 4 million tons every second, this
is the amount of hydrogen gas that the Sun turns into energy.
Solar PV generated power could provide 10,000 times more energy
than the world currently uses.
The number of sunspots and the levels of solar activity vary
with an 11 year period known as the solar cycle.
The Sun is a typical G2 star. G stars are classified as having
a temperature in the range of 5000 to 6000 K, and a color ranging
from white to yellow. Spectrally, G stars show most predominantly
the lines of ionized calcium. Lines from ionized and neutral metals
are present. Lines from ionized hydrogen show up weakly.
Auroras, rainbows, sun dogs, green flashes, sun pillars, sunfish,
sunflowers, glorious sunrises -- the Earth is full of wondrous references
to the Sun, each inspired by the life-giving force from our special
star.
Solar Observing tools
The
sun spotter.
Mylar
Solar Filters
Inconel
Filters
Hydrogen-alpha
Filters
Calcium
K-line Filters
Energy
Rejection Filters
<-- Mouse over for details.
You can often find some of these sun observing tools at star parties.
When we measure stars, we compare them to our sun.
Our sun has a solar mass of 1. A star with a solar mass of 2 has
twice the mass of the sun.
