what is the sun?

Answer 1

A huge ball of fire.

Answer 2

The sun, can best be described as...a star consisting of around 70% Hydrogen, 25% is helium, and other elements such as iron. It is the center of our solar system. Many other stars are like the sun, but the astrological Latin name for our sun is Sol (or Greek Helios). It gives us much warmth (to the Earth), in which plants can use photosynthesis (a process of "self-feeding"), where the sun plays a major role.


The Sun has a role in mythology too - it was usually seen as the top god (along with thunderstorms). Take the egyptian Ra for example, symbolizing the sun and its power. The Earth was thought to be the center in which the sun revolved around (known as the Geocentric Theory)...until it was proven to be the earth revolving around the Sun (Heliocentric Theory, do note the Greek etymology).

Besides that, check encyclopedia entries for the sun if you want more info.

Answer 3

The star at the centre of the Solar System we live in. The Earth orbits the Sun, which is on average 93 million miles away from us, and its light takes about 8 minutes 20 seconds to reach us (it takes 500 seconds to travel 93 million miles at 186,000 miles a second)

Though very bright (to us) with an Apparent Magnitude of -26.8, the sun is not especially bright compared to other stars. Its Absolute Magnitude (which tells us how bright it would look if it were 10 parsecs away (about 32 light years away) is about 4.8 i.e. it would only be just about visible if viewed on a clear night,

It is a Main Sequence srar (which means it fuses hydrogen to form helium in its core) and has a classification of G2 on the Morgan-Keenan Spectral Classification (see link). About 8% of Main Sequence stars are classified as G. There are more than 100 million G2 class stars (out of approx. 400 billion stars) in our galaxy, the Milky Way.

The sun is approx 4.6 billion years old and about half-way through its life-cycle, When it has fused all of its hydrogen into helium (which it is doing at a rate of 500 million tonnes a second) it will start to fuse helium to to make carbon, This will cause it to heat up and expand as it then becomes a Red Giant star (like Betelgeuse in the constellation Orion) and it will engulf Mercury and Venus and boil off Earth's water and atmosphere, in the process, making life on Earth impossible.

After 100 million years or so, as a Red Giant, it will then cool down and become a White Dwarf, about the size of the Earth,

At present, though, the Sun's ...
Mean diameter = 1.392×10^6 km (109 Earth diameters).
Circumference = 4.373×10^6 km (342 Earth diameters)
Surface area = c6.09×10^12 km² (11,900 Earths)
Volume = 1.41×10^18 km³ (1,300,000 Earths)
Mass = 1.9891×10^30 kg (332,950 Earths)

The Earth and other matter (including other planets, asteroids, meteoroids, comets and dust) orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for more than 99% of the solar system's mass. So there are some dramatic changes ahead!

Answer 4

The Sun is a vast ball of compressed gasses know as a star. The Sun has a diameter of 865,000 mi. and, on average is about 92,976,00 mi. from Earth. The light from the Sun reaches the Earth in 8 minutes. Its surface tempreture is estimated at around 9,940 degrees.

Answer 5

An average sized star, in the centre of our solar system, 93 million miles away. Light from the Sun, takes 11 minutes to reach the Earth.

Answer 6

The sun is a moderate sized star. It is still fairly young as stars go. Our sun, named Sol, is a large ball of hydrogen gas that is slowly being converted to helium in a sustained fusion reaction.

Answer 7

The Sun is the most prominent feature in our solar system. It is the largest object and contains approximately 98% of the total solar system mass. Another definition is a typical star that is the source of light and heat for the planets in the solar system; "the sun contains 99.85% of the mass in the solar system."

I found some beautiful sites on google.com for you:

http://www.nineplanets.org/sol.html

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/sun.html

http://vortex.plymouth.edu/sun/sun2.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun

Answer 8

Sun is a huge ball of gas & star.

Answer 9

It is our very own personal star. Make a wish every morning!

;-D Without the sun, it would get super cold!

Answer 10

Sun is our star in solar system and it made us life ever day by shining if you like you can read my 360 In my yahoo.

Answer 11

Sun is a star.........stars are giant balls of gases.
It is the star nearest to the earth.
The star after sun, which is nearest to the earth is Proxima!