Sun compared to Earth
Anatomy of the Sun
Diameter: 109 times wider (1.4 million km
[863,700 mi.])
and how we view it
Volume: 1.26 million times bigger
Mass: 332,776 times heavier
Surface gravity: 28 times stronger
Escape velocity: 55 times faster
3: Chromosphere
Hot “color” outer atmosphere.
Seen in deep red and
other colors.
4: Transition to corona
Thin layer of atmosphere
with sharp rise in
temperature. Seen
in extreme
ultraviolet
(here) and
X-rays.
Magnetic field: 2 times stronger (1 gauss)
across Sun; up to 6,000 times stronger (3,000
gauss) in sunspots
Other Sun facts
Core density: same as an aircraft carrier
crammed into a 1.2 m (4’) cube
Core temperature: 16 million K (26 million ˚F)
Energy production: about 9.6 trillion
1‑megaton H-bombs/second (only a
10‑millionth of a supernova!)
Surface density: 1/10,000th as thin as Earth’s
sea-level atmosphere
5: Corona
Extremely
faint, thin,
extremely hot
gas extending
into space and
becoming the solar
wind. Seen in white
light (shown) and
X-rays.
Size of Earth
Surface temperature: 5780 K (9912 ˚F), almost
2 times boiling point of iron
Energy received at Earth: same as all the
energy of a 100-watt bulb falling on a sheet of
legal paper (1,365 watts/m2)
Type: G2 V (main sequence, yellow dwarf)
Age: 4.5 billion years (4 to 5 billion to go!)
1: Interior
Hidden from
view because dense gas
blocks light — but revealed by
studying up-down oscillations
(shown) of the visible surface.
2: Photosphere
Thin “visible surface” where
gas is thin enough for light to
escape. Seen in white light (all
colors of rainbow).
From the inside (1) out (to 5)
For copies of this and other NSO fact sheets, visit: ftp://ftp.nso.edu/outgoing/users/EPO/
Fate: Gradually gets too hot for Earth; then red
giant, white dwarf, fade to black
National Solar Observatory / Sunspot, NM • Kitt Peak, AZ
http://www.nso.edu
The National Solar Observatory operates
under a cooperative agreement between
the Association of Universities for Research
in Astronomy, Inc. and the National Science
Foundation.
© 2010 National Solar Observatory