How far away is the sun?
Created | Updated Aug 24, 2006
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How far away is the sun?
Our Sun is a G2 type star at the center of the Solar System with an absolute magnitude of 4.2. The spectral type depends on the star temperature. The brightness of stars is measured in magnitude. The lower the number the higher the magnitude. The brightest stars have magnitudes in negative numbers. Each number on the magnitude scale represents an increase or decrease of brightness of 2.5 times. It is 865,000 miles (1,392,000 kilometers) in diameter and has a surface temperature of 3,300F (6,000C). The Sun’s gravity is 27.9 times that of the Earth.
The Sun was born about 5,000 million years ago and is about half way through its life. It will eventually die by swelling up into a red giant star swallowing up Mercury, Venus and possibly the Earth and will expel its outer layer into space. All that will be left will be the core that will be about the size of the Earth and will be a white dwarf star. It will eventually wink out to become a black dwarf star. It is not true to say the Sun is burning. It is fusing hydrogen into helium and this is what keeps the Sun shining and giving us our heat.
The Sun is 92,960,000 miles (149,600,000 kilometers) away from the Earth and this means that the light from the Sun travelling at 186,000 miles per second (300,000 kilometers per second) takes 8 minutes to reach us from the Sun.
I have made several batches of questions. This question is from the second batch. To find other batches of questions plus the newest one return to the main h2g2 as Q and A page using the first link below. Other questions in this batch are also below.
| h2g2as Q and A | Find the answers to many space related questions. |
| What is between Mars and Jupiter in our Solar System? | The large belt of asteroid that sperates the terrestiral planets from the gas giants. |
| How far away is the sun? | The distance to our star. How far its light and heat has to travel. |
| How long does it take the Moon to Orbit the Earth? | Our nearest neighbour's orbit defines our months. |
| How often does Halley’s Comet pay us a visit? | The most famous comet and the only comet not to be named after the discoverer. |
| Which planets have a ring-system? | The Lord of the Rings. |
| What is the giant red spot on Jupiter? | The spot light is on Jupiter. |
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