The sun is the heart of our star system. This body is a ball of hot gas, carrying planets adjacent to it around the center of the galaxy at a speed of about 200 km/s. Even relative to all the bodies of the system taken together, the Sun is huge - it exceeds total weight 750 times. Looking at the star from our home planet, it is difficult to understand how many times the diameter of the Sun is more than Earth.
Size
For a person far from the world of stars, our star seems incredibly huge, but experts classify it as a yellow dwarf - such bodies are simply a dime a dozen in the Galaxy. And until now it was believed that it does not stand out among similar stars in any way. But last years scientists discover characteristics that distinguish it from luminaries of the same class as the Sun. For example, it emits less ultraviolet rays than its “brothers”. Relatively similar stars our star has a large mass. Moreover, regarding variable stars, our Sun does not noticeably change its brightness.
How many times larger than the Earth our luminary is has long been known, although it is difficult for humans to comprehend. Its diameter is 1392 thousand kilometers. To roughly understand how many times the Sun is larger than the Earth, you need to imagine a house with 5 floors, the height of which is about 13.5 meters - this is the diameter of the star. Next to him lies a ball that is only 12.5 cm in diameter - this is the Earth. So, visually, it is easier to imagine the difference between these celestial bodies.
Interesting! If we compare the star with a black hole located in the middle of the Galaxy, the difference will be even more impressive. In this case, you should imagine a hole in the form of a house. And the Sun next to it is about the size of a buckwheat grain.
Diameters
The radius of our star is 696 thousand kilometers, while that of our planet is only 6.371 thousand. It is easy to calculate how many times the Sun is larger than the Earth. In linear dimensions, it is 109 times larger than our planet.
It is difficult to understand how many times the mass of the Sun is greater than the Earth: the star “weighs” two trillion quadrillion, while our planet weighs 6 sextillion. The difference between these numbers is 333 thousand times. This means that the Sun is 333 times “heavier” than the Earth.
For clarity, you can imagine our planet in the form of a grain of wheat, weighing about 0.065 grams. Under such conditions, the Sun would weigh about 20 kg - 4 five-liter bottles of water.
Gravity
The acceleration of free fall on the luminary is 274 m/s, which is 28 times more gravity. Thus, a thin girl who falls into the Sun and does not get burned (let’s imagine that this is possible) will weigh twice as much as the most difficult person on Earth (its weight is about 500 kg).
Volume
The densities of our planet and stars are completely different. Therefore, many are interested in how many times the Sun is larger than the Earth in volume, because the proportions of bodies by volume do not correspond to the proportions by weight or linear dimensions. The star has a size of 1.412 x 1018 km3, whereas blue planet-10.8321·1011 km3.
To imagine how much heavier the Sun is in reality than the Earth per unit volume, it is enough to convert the numbers into simpler ones, understandable to humans. To do this, you need to take the planet and “shake” it, achieving homogeneity of the composition. Do the same with the Sun. After this, cut off a piece from each body equal to cubic meter(1 m wide, 1 m deep, 1 m high). If you weigh the resulting shares, then a cube of planet Earth will weigh about 28 tons, while a cube of the Sun will weigh 400 tons.
After spending similar calculations and measurements it is easy to understand that the star of our system in all respects exceeds the place where we live, and there is no way to equalize them. If we compare the Sun with the luminaries of other systems in our Galaxy, it will turn out to be far from the hottest, not the largest, not the most massive. What discoveries regarding our and other stars await us in the future - for now we can only guess.
Compared to the Sun. Photo credit: NASA.
Weight: 1.98892 x 10 30 kg
Diameter: 1,391,000 km
Radius: 695,500 km
Gravity on the surface of the Sun: 27.94 g
Sun volume: 1.412 x 10 30 kg 3
Density of the Sun: 1.622 x 10 5 kg/m 3
How big is the Sun?
Compared to other stars, the Sun has the average size, and not yet big star. Stars with much higher mass can be much larger than the Sun. For example, the red giant Betelgeuse, in the constellation Orion, is believed to be 1000 times larger than the Sun. And the largest known star is VY Canis Majoris, which is approximately 2000 times larger than the Sun. If you could place VY Canis Majoris in our Solar System, it would be extended beyond the orbit of Saturn.
The size of the Sun is changing. In the future, when it produces usable hydrogen fuel in its core, it too will become a red giant. It will consume the orbits And , and perhaps even . Within a few million years, the Sun will be 200 times larger than its current size.
After the Sun becomes a red giant, it will shrink to become white dwarf star. Then the size of the Sun will become approximately the size of the Earth.
Mass of the Sun
Mass of the Sun 1.98892 x 10 30 kg. This is a really huge number and it's really hard to put it in an environment, so let's write the mass of the Sun with all zeros.
1,988,920,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg.
Still need to turn your head? Let's make a comparison. 333,000 times the mass of the Sun more mass Earth. It is 1048 times the mass of Jupiter and 3498 times the mass of Saturn.
In fact, the Sun accounts for 99.8% of the total mass in the entire Solar System; and most of the non-solar mass is Jupiter and Saturn. To say that the Earth is an insignificant speck is putting it mildly.
When astronomers try to measure the mass of another stellar object, they use the mass of the Sun as a comparison. This is known as the "solar mass". Therefore, the mass of objects, like black holes, will be measured in solar masses. A massive star can be 5-10 solar masses. A supermassive black hole could be hundreds of millions of solar masses.
Astronomers attribute to this the symbol M, which looks like a circle with a dot in the middle - M⊙. To show , which has a mass of 5 solar masses, or 5 solar masses, that would be 5 M ⊙ .
Eta Carinae, one of the most massive famous stars. Photo credit: NASA.
The sun is massive, but not the biggest star out there. In fact, the biggest massive star The one we know is Eta Carinae, which has a mass of 150 solar masses.
The mass of the Sun is slowly decreasing over time. There are two processes at work there. The first is nuclear fusion reactions in the Sun's core, converting hydrogen atoms into helium. Some of the sun's mass is lost through nuclear fusion, when hydrogen atoms are converted into energy. The heat we feel from the Sun is the loss of solar mass. The second one is , which constantly blows protons and electrons into outer space.
Mass of the Sun in kilograms: 1.98892 x 10 30 kg
Mass of the Sun in pounds: 4.38481 x 10 30 pounds
Mass of the Sun in US tons: 2.1924 x 10 27 US tons (1 US ton = 907.18474 kg)
Mass of the Sun in tons: 1.98892 x 10 30 tons (1 metric ton = 1000 kg)
Diameter of the Sun
The diameter of the Sun is 1.391 million kilometers or 870,000 miles.
Again, let's put this number in perspective. The diameter of the Sun is 109 times the diameter of the Earth. This is 9.7 times the diameter of Jupiter. Really, really a lot.
The sun is far from the very big stars in . The one we know is called VY Canis Majoris, and astronomers believe it is 2,100 times the diameter of the Sun.
Diameter of the Sun in kilometers: 1,391,000 km
Diameter of the Sun in miles: 864,000 miles
Diameter of the Sun in meters: 1,391,000,000 m
Diameter of the Sun compared to the Earth: 109 Earths
Radius of the Sun
The radius of the Sun, the dimensions from the exact center to its surface, is 695,500 km.
The sun takes about 25 days to rotate on its axis. Because it rotates relatively slowly, the Sun is not flattened at all. The distance from the center to the poles is almost the same size as the distance from the center to the equator.
Somewhere out there there are stars that differ significantly. For example, the star Achernar, located in the constellation Eridanus, is flattened to 50%. In other words, the distance from the poles is half the distance from the equator. In such a situation, the star actually looks like a toy top.
Therefore, relative to the stars there, the Sun is almost a superior sphere.
Astronomers use the radius of the Sun to compare the sizes of stars and other astronomical objects. For example, a star with 2 solar radii is twice the size of the Sun. A star with 10 solar radii is 10 times larger than the Sun, and so on.
VY Canis Majoris. The largest known star.
Polar Star(Polaris) North Star is the largest star in the constellation Ursa Minor, and due to its proximity to the north celestial pole it is considered the current north polar star. Polaris is primarily used for navigation and has a solar radius of 30. Which means it is 30 times larger than the Sun.
Sirius, which is the brightest star in the night sky. In terms of visible magnitude, second most bright Star Canopus is only half the size of Sirius. Unsurprisingly, it really stands out. Sirius is actually binary star system with the star Sirius A having a solar radius of 1.711, and Sirius B which is much smaller at 0.0084.
Radius of the Sun in kilometers: 695,500 km
Radius of the Sun in miles: 432,000 miles
Radius of the Sun in meters: 695,500,000 m
Radius of the Sun compared to the Earth: 109 Earths
Gravity of the Sun
The sun has a huge amount of mass and therefore has a lot of gravity. In fact, the Sun is 333,000 times the mass of the Earth. Forget that 5800 Kelvin is made of hydrogen - how would you feel if you could walk on the surface of the Sun? Think about it, the Sun's surface gravity is 28 times Earth's gravity.
In other words, if your scale says 100 kg on Earth, it would be 2800 kg if you were trying to walk on the surface of the Sun. Needless to say, a person would die quite quickly just from the pull of gravity, not to mention the heat, etc.
The Sun's gravity pulls all the mass (mainly hydrogen and helium) into an almost perfect sphere. Down to the Sun's core, temperatures and pressures are so high that it becomes possible nuclear fusion. The enormous amount of light and energy pouring from the Sun resists the pull of gravity to compress it.
Diagram of the Solar System, including the Oort Cloud, on a logarithmic scale. Credit: NASA
Astronomers determine as the distance under the influence of gravity from the Sun. We know that the Sun keeps distant (average distance of 5.9 billion kilometers). But astronomers think the Oort Cloud extends to a distance of 50,000 astronomical units(1 AU is the distance from the Earth to the Sun), or 1 light year. In fact, the Sun's gravity could extend out to a distance of up to 2 light years, the point at which the pull of other stars is stronger.
Surface gravity of the Sun: 27.94 g
Density of the Sun
The density of the Sun is 1.4 grams per cubic centimeter. For comparison, the density of water is 1 g/cm3. In other words, if you found a large enough pool, the Sun would "sink and not float." And this seems counter-intuitive. Isn't the Sun made of hydrogen and helium, the two lightest elements in the Universe? So how can the density of the Sun be so high?
Well, it's all from gravity. But first, let's calculate the density of the Sun ourselves.
The density formula is mass divided by volume. Sun mass 2 x 10 33 grams, and the volume is 1.41 x 10 33 cm 3 . And so, if you do the math, the density of the Sun is 1.4 g/cm 3 .
Interior Sun. Image credit: NASA.
The sun is held back by gravity. Although the outermost layers of the Sun may be less dense, strong gravity squeezes inland regions with enormous pressure. The Sun's core has a pressure of more than 1 million metric tons on square centimeter- which is equivalent to more than 10 billion Earth atmospheres. And as soon as you get that pressure, nuclear fusion starts.
Title of the article you read "Characteristics of the Sun".
The sun is the center of our system, we owe our existence to it. Therefore, it is not surprising that this star attracts so much attention. Most often people are interested in the size of the star called the Sun. How many times larger than the Earth is our star? Humanity did not immediately come to this form of the question, because in ancient times it was believed that everything was concentrated around the Earth, and their size was that which we could observe with the naked eye. But those days are long gone, so now we know that our planet is far from the largest cosmic body, but not everyone knows how many times the Sun is larger than the Earth in diameter and in other parameters.
Size
Approximately equal to 696 thousand kilometers. This is 109 times greater than radius of our planet. It would seem that one can say exactly how much larger the Sun is, how many times larger than the Earth. However, no, these figures only indicate that 109 planets like ours could be placed along the solar equator. The volume of the star exceeds the volume of our planet by more than a million times - 1.3 million. It is almost impossible for a person to imagine such a difference in size. Therefore, it is worth transferring cosmic dimensions to a closer and more understandable level.
If we imagine that ours is the size of an orange, then the Sun will be a two-story house. Moreover, this house will be located as much as 750 meters from the orange. If the star had continents similar to those on Earth, then it would be possible to fly from “Moscow” to “Thailand” not in 10 hours, but in 3-4 months.
Weight
Of course, if you know how big the Sun is, how many times larger than the Earth, you can assume that its mass will be much greater. And indeed it is. Considering the difference in chemical composition, and therefore density, scientists have long calculated how much the Sun “weighs”. How many times larger than the Earth is not particularly important in this case, because their density is very different from each other. So, the mass of the star is almost two trillion quadrillion. It is written as 2 and 27 zeros following the number. The Earth “weighs” only 6 sextillion - that’s the number 6 followed by 21 zeros. Thus, the difference in mass will be 333 thousand times.
Attraction
Thanks to large sizes stars, gravitational acceleration at the surface is much greater than on planet Earth. However, the question “How many times greater is the force of gravity of the Earth towards the Sun?” will be incorrect, because with this formulation of the question you need to compare it with something. Rather, the interesting question is “How much bigger is the Sun than the Earth?” And it is 28 times larger. So, if we could be in the Sun without burning, we would be crushed by our own weight. Even a skinny woman who weighs 50 kg on Earth and is proud of her figure would weigh almost one and a half tons on a star. Her bones and internal organs They simply couldn’t withstand such a mass.
Even those who are not going to devote themselves to studying space and the bodies traveling in it need to at least have a rough idea:
- what size is ours own star- Sun;
- how many times larger than the Earth is our star;
- whether there are bodies in space larger in size than the Sun;
- what place we occupy in the Universe.
These questions have always interested people. And today science can give us detailed answers to all questions.
We are accustomed to treating the Sun as a given. It appears every morning to shine throughout the day and then disappear over the horizon until the next morning. This continues from century to century. Some people worship the Sun, others don't pay attention to it because most spend time indoors.
Regardless of how we feel about the Sun, it continues to perform its function - giving light and warmth. Everything has its own size and shape. Thus, the Sun has an almost ideal spherical shape. Its diameter is almost the same throughout its entire circumference. The differences can be on the order of 10 km, which is negligible.
Few people think about how far the star is from us and what size it is. And the numbers can surprise. Thus, the distance from the Earth to the Sun is 149.6 million kilometers. Moreover, each individual Sunbeam reaches the surface of our planet in 8.31 minutes. It is unlikely that in the near future people will learn to fly at the speed of light. Then it would be possible to get to the surface of the star in more than eight minutes.
Dimensions of the Sun
Everything is relative. If we take our planet and compare it in size with the Sun, it will fit on its surface 109 times. The radius of the star is 695,990 km. Moreover, the mass of the Sun is 333,000 times greater than the mass of the Earth! Moreover, in one second it gives off energy equivalent to 4.26 million tons of mass loss, that is, 3.84x10 to the 26th power of J.
Which earthling can boast that he has walked along the equator of the entire planet? There will probably be travelers who crossed the Earth on ships and other vehicles. This took a lot of time. It would take them much longer to go around the Sun. This will take at least 109 times more effort and years.
The sun can visually change its size. Sometimes it seems several times larger than usual. Other times, on the contrary, it decreases. It all depends on the state of the Earth's atmosphere.
What is the Sun
The sun does not have the same dense mass as most planets. A star can be compared to a spark that constantly releases heat into the surrounding space. In addition, explosions and plasma separations periodically occur on the surface of the Sun, which greatly affects people’s well-being.
The temperature on the surface of the star is 5770 K, in the center - 15,600,000 K. With an age of 4.57 billion years, the Sun is capable of remaining the same bright star for an entire
Humanity for a long time I was worried about the question of how many times the Sun is larger than the Earth.
The closest star to us, thanks to which the existence of life on our planet is possible. If it were a little hotter or colder, smaller or larger in radius, then the appearance of people and other living beings would be impossible. In ancient times, people believed that it was the Sun that revolved around the Earth. This theory was put forward by Ptolemy, who lived in the 2nd century BC. But only centuries later, in the 16th century, the Polish scientist Nicolaus Copernicus was able to complex calculations prove that this particular star is in the center solar system. On this moment astronomy continues to develop and already has sufficient knowledge about the star closest to us, including how many times the Sun is larger than the Earth.
Dimensions
When we look at the star, it seems as if its diameter is no larger than a coin, but this is not so, because the star is much larger than our planet. This effect occurs due to the large size (approximately 150,000,000 km). To make it easier for people to understand the size of the star, scientists determined how many times the radius of the Sun is larger than the Earth.
In order to understand the size of a star, it is necessary to measure its radius, but this is much more difficult to do in relation to a gas ball than to solid body, so they introduced the term limbo. The limb is the sharply defined edge of the luminary, which is taken to be the boundary of the ball. Next, the magnitude of the luminary is calculated in the same way as any other space object. According to astronomers' calculations, the radius of the star is 696,000 km. Thanks to these data, it is not difficult to calculate how many times the diameter of the Sun is greater than the diameter of the Earth. It turns out that 109 times! If, for clarity, we imagine our planet the size of an orange, then the star, by analogy, will look like a two-story house.
Weight
If in order to imagine the real scale of the star, its size is not enough for you, then it’s time to compare the masses of our planet and the hot ball around which it rotates. So, the mass of the first is 5.9736x1024 kg, and the second is approximately 2x1030 kg (easy to calculate from Kepler's third law). From this we can determine that the Sun is approximately 333,333 times heavier than its third planet. If, again for clarity, we imagine the Earth in the form of a thing familiar to us, the size of which we can easily imagine, for example, a grain of wheat, then the Sun, compared to the planet, would have a mass like four 5-liter bottles of water.
It is important to imagine the real size of our star not only because it is the closest star to us, but also in order to understand the enormous scale of the Universe and our tiny place in it.