The Sun! Our everything. The source of Life and at the same time an ordinary Star in an ordinary Galaxy. But how big is actually? The most easy way to understand the size of the Sun is to compare it to something we know. Our home Planet – The Earth will do a wonderful job. So, How Big is Sun compared to Earth?
But first let’s look up a bit of digits. The Sun is a star at the center of the solar system. It represents almost a perfect sphere made up of hot plasma and magnetic fields. Its diameter is about 1 392 000 km, nearly 109 times larger than the Earth, and its mass (1.9891 × 1030 kg – 330,000 times the Earth) makes up about 99.86% of the total mass of the solar system. This means that you could put 109 Earths side-by-side to match the diameter of the Sun. And if you wanted to try and fill up the Sun with Earths, it would take 1.3 million Earths to match the volume of the Sun. From a chemical point of view, about three quarters of the mass of the Sun is formed by hydrogen, and the remainder is mostly helium, as 1,69% by mass (or 5628 times the mass of the earth) are other heavier elements such as oxygen, carbon , neon, iron and others.
So our Sun is really giant fireball. And if you still have problem to imagine how big is, let me help you with an example: Average speed of passenger aircraft is 800 km/h and if you decide to travel from New York to London flight time will be around 7 hours. If you decide to make one full tour around the Earth (equals approximately 40,000 km) without landing, then this adventure will take two days and two hours. Now imagine that with the same aircraft we decided to do a full lap around the Sun. So how long will take? The answer is 5458 hours or about 228 days. And that’s a long flight , hope you have got a lots of music with you 🙂
And if you think that the Sun is the greatest thing in the Universe, in the video below you will see that you are far from the true and there are quite bigger “fishes” from our local Star.
Cool post. I like learning about the universe, it just seems so mysterious. Thanks for adding the stats, it helps to visuals how big the sun actually is! I can’t believe it would take 228 days to fly around it, what?! That’s hard to imagine. Just one thing I didn’t understand, what do you mean by the sun’s mass being 99.86% of the total mass of the solar system? I don’t understand the ‘total mass of the solar system part’. Thanks!
Hi Summerly. Yes, the Sun is really big, that big that if you measure the mass of all bodies in Soar System- The Sun, all planets, asteroids, comets, the Sun will be 99.86% of everything!
I love learning about our universe, the planets, moons and of course the sun. The sun is huge, and we need it to survive here on earth, but you’re right. It is a dwarf compared to some of the stars out there. Wow! It would take over 1/2 a year to get around the sun? I knew it was big, but man!
Yeah Kevin, That’s why I made this calculation, cuz even we know how big is, it’s steel hard to mind to figure it out about the real scale of the Sun size. Thanks for the comment 🙂
It’s just mind-boggling how big things are in space and how much distance there is between objects. And to think that there are stars out there that are millions of times larger than our sun.
This is a fascinating post, and I love to think about these things from time to time.
Thanks for sharing and keep up the good work!
I love to think about the Universe. In just few minutes my mind is blew away with all of it’s problems 🙂
If everything that exists in space blows your mind, think of He who made the space and the galaxies and placed everything in perfect order, He is above all His creation and nothing is like unto Him. Allahu Akbr. All the space galaxies put together are nothing compared to the throne of the Exalted one, Plus, His throne is nothing compared to Him.
That’s awesome really I love my universe
If I had the sun it would be a door and the Earth would be a pea. Is that a good size comparison?
I thing is good, Karen! Not sure 1.3 million peas can fit in the door , but if they can it’s very good example.
Yo right, like you need 1.3million peas to get to the size of the door.
One of the few things to surpass this size is big chungus, being 69 times the size of the sun.
Well, you can’t physically compare the size of the Sun to a door you just can’t and why try to fly around the Sun because wouldn’t it be too hot, and wouldn’t you melt to death?
Well, you can’t physically compare the size of the Sun to a door you just can’t and why try to fly around the Sun because wouldn’t it be too hot, and wouldn’t you melt to death soooooooo?