EPONYMOUS:
Numerous names have been given to the Sun. The primary adjective for everything having to do with the Sun is solar, and the Latin word for sun is "sol." Numerous concepts linked to the Sun have the name of Helios, the Sun deity of ancient Greek mythology, including heliosphere and helioseismology.

The sun is by far the largest object in the solar system, located at its center. It is approximately 109 times larger than Earth and contains 99.8% of the mass of the solar system; one million Earths could fit within the sun.

The Sun may seem like a constant source of heat and light in the sky as viewed from Earth. However, the Sun is a dynamic star that changes and releases energy into space on a regular basis. Heliophysics is the study of the Sun and how it affects the solar system as a whole.

The sun's surface is approximately 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,500 degrees Celsius), while nuclear processes inside the core cause temperatures to soar to over 27 million Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius). To equal the energy produced by the sun, 100 billion tons of dynamite would have to be detonated every second, according to NASA.

The Milky Way is home to around 100 billion stars, including our sun. It completes a revolution approximately every 250 million years while circling the galactic center at a distance of 25,000 light-years. As a member of the Population I star generation, which is comparatively rich in elements heavier than helium, the sun is a young star. Population II refers to the elder generation of stars, and an earlier generation.

FORMATION OF SUN:
The solar nebula, a massive rotating cloud of gas and dust, is where the Sun created some 4.6 billion years ago. The nebula spun more quickly and flattened into a disk as it collapsed due to its own gravity. Entire nebula material was drawn into the center to form our Sun, which makes up 99.8% of the mass of our solar system. Planets and other objects that currently orbit the Sun were produced by a large portion of the leftover material. (The early solar wind of the young Sun blew away the remaining gas and dust.)

Our Sun will eventually run out of energy, just like all other stars. The Sun will grow into a red giant star when it begins to die, growing to such a size that it.

THE SUN's INTERIOR STRUCTURE AND ATMOSPHERE:
There are various zones and layers that make up the sun and its atmosphere. The radiative zone, convective zone, and core make up the solar interior from the inside out. The photosphere, chromosphere, transition region, and corona make up the solar atmosphere above that. The solar wind, a gas outflow from the corona, is located beyond that.
 The sun's core reaches approximately 25% of the way to the surface from its center. It contains about half of the sun's mass and has a density nearly fifteen times greater than lead's, yet making up only 2% of the sun's volume. The radiative zone, which makes up 32% of the sun's volume and 48% of its mass, comes next. It stretches from the sun's core to 70% of its surface. This region scatters light from the core, making it possible for a single photon to take a million years to get through.

Reaching up to the sun's surface, the convection zone accounts for 66% of the sun's volume but just little more than 2% of its total mass.

DIMENSIONS AND RANGE:
The radius of our Sun, a medium-sized star, is roughly 435,000 miles (700,000 kilometers). While many stars are far larger than our planet, the Sun is far more massive than it is: more than 330,000 Earths would be needed to equal the mass of the Sun, and 1.3 million Earths would be needed to fill its volume.

About 150 million kilometers, or 93 million miles, separate Earth from the Sun. The closest stellar neighbor is the Alpha Centauri triple star system, which consists of two sun-like stars orbiting each other, Alpha Centauri A and B, and the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, which is 4.24 light-years away. The distance that light travels in a year is called a light-year, and it is approximately 6 trillion miles.

STRUCTURE OF THE SUN:
The Sun is a massive ball of helium and hydrogen bound together by gravity.

There are various areas on the Sun. The convection zone, radiative zone, and core are the internal regions. The photosphere, or visible surface, comes next, then the chromosphere, the transition zone, and finally the corona, or Sun's vast outer atmosphere, moving outward.

The solar wind, which emerges from the corona at supersonic speeds, creates the massive magnetic "bubble" known as the heliosphere that envelops the Sun. In our solar system, the heliosphere reaches beyond planet orbits. Earth is therefore a part of the Sun's atmosphere. Interstellar space is the region outside the heliosphere.The Sun's core is its hottest region.

SURFACE OF THE SUN:
In contrast to Earth and the other rocky planets and moons, the Sun lacks a solid surface. The photosphere is the area of the Sun that is usually referred to as its surface. Since this is the layer that emits the most visible light, the word "photosphere" literally means "light sphere." It is what our eyes can perceive from Earth. (Hopefully, this goes without saying, but always wear eye protection when gazing straight into the sun.)

The photosphere is the topmost layer of the solar atmosphere, even though we refer to it as the surface. With temperatures that can reach up to 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,500 degrees Celsius), it is roughly 250 miles thick. Although it's far colder than the burning core, it's still hot enough to form carbon materials like graphite and diamonds.

THE MAGNETIC FIELD OF THE SUN:
Generally speaking, the magnetic field of the sun is only roughly twice as powerful as that of Earth. It can, however, become extremely concentrated in tiny regions and can become up to 3,000 times stronger than normal. The sun spins more swiftly at the equator than it does at higher latitudes, and its interior rotates faster than its surface, which causes the magnetic field to kink and twist.

Features like as sunspots and dramatic explosions known as flares and coronal mass ejections are produced by these distortions. The solar system's most explosive eruptions are flares, while less violent coronal mass ejections release massive amounts of material into space; one ejection can shoot up to 20 billion tons (18 billion metric tons) of material.

IMPORTANT SUN CHARACTERISTICS:
When the Moon covers the photosphere during total solar eclipses, the chromosphere appears as a thin, red rim around the Sun, while the corona forms a gorgeous white crown (the word "corona" means "crown" in Latin and Spanish). The corona's plasma streamers narrow outward, forming shapes that resemble flower petals. Normally, visible light from these upper regions of the Sun is too weak to be seen against the brighter photosphere.

The Sun's corona is far hotter than the layers just beneath it, which is one of its greatest mysteries. (Consider leaving a campfire and finding yourself warmer.) One of the main mysteries in solar research is the origin of coronal heating.

FAST FACTS:
Day length varies with latitude, with 25 Earth days at the equator and 36 at the poles.

Year: There isn't really a "year" on the Sun. However, the Sun brings the planets, asteroids, comets, and other things with it as it revolves around the Milky Way's center every 230 million Earth years.

Star type: Main-sequence yellow dwarf star G2 V

Temperature at surface: 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,500 degrees Celsius) in the photosphere

Temperature of the corona, or solar atmosphere, can reach 3.5 million °F (2 million °C).