Sun

Sun

The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields. It has a diameter of about 1,392,684 km, about 109 times that of Earth, and its mass (about 2×1030 kilograms, 330,000 times that of Earth) accounts for about 99.86% of the total mass of the Solar System. Chemically, about three quarters of the Sun's mass consists of hydrogen, while the rest is mostly helium. The remainder (1.69%, which nonetheless equals 5,628 times the mass of Earth) consists of heavier elements, including oxygen, carbon, neon and iron, among others.

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Famous quotes containing the word sun:

    I’ve no time now, but believe me as surely as the moon will set and the sun will rise I shall kill you tomorrow night. I shall kill you even if you hide in the deepest cave of the earth. At ten o’clock tomorrow night, I shall kill you.
    R.C. Sherriff (1896–1975)

    The best sun we have is made of Newcastle coal, and I am determined never to reckon upon any other.
    Horace Walpole (1717–1797)

    The sun set; but set not his hope:
    Stars rose; his faith was earlier up:
    Fixed on the enormous galaxy,
    Deeper and older seemed his eye:
    And matched his sufferance sublime
    The taciturnity of time.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)