Sun
The Sun is the star located at the solar system’s center. Its gravity holds the solar system as a whole together. It accounts for about 99.86% of the total solar system’s mass.
Hydrogen is about 73% of the Sun’s total mass; the rest is mostly Helium (25%), with a small quantity of oxygen, carbon, neon, and iron. The hottest part of the Sun is its core, where temperatures top 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius).
The core is the place where it generates enormous amounts of energy through the nuclear fusion reaction. It mainly radiates energy through visible light, ultraviolet, and infrared radiation.
Mass extinctions of land-dwelling animals follow a 27-million-year cycle
Timing of mass extinctions lines up with asteroid impacts and massive volcanic eruptions.
A look at the sun’s dusty environment
A search that could help to reveal how planets like Earth come into being.
The study offers clues on what makes the sun’s atmosphere so hot
Scientists get the lowdown on sun’s super-hot atmosphere.
Astronomers identified nearly 120,000 new young stellar objects
Mapping stellar nurseries in the Milky Way.
The first-ever detection of neutrinos produced in the Sun
BOREXINO achieves the first experimental test of how massive stars shine.
Scientists predicted the arrival of a large sunspot
It was inconspicuous at first but grew quickly, breaking detection thresholds just one day later.
Ancient star’s orbits prompt rethink on Milky Way evolution
Australian telescope and European satellite combine to reveal unexpected motions among the galaxy's rarest objects.
Scientists measured the gravitational redshift of the Sun
New measurements of the solar spectrum verify Einstein’s theory of General Relativity.
Venus might be habitable today, if not for Jupiter
Study shows destabilizing effect of the giant gas planet.
Our solar system has a second alignment plane
This has important implications for models of how comets originally formed in the solar system.