2007-05-09 20:36:55 · 4 answers · asked by kiasweet85 2 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
The sun is made up of an awful lot of gas... so much that during its formation the central portion got compressed so much by the force of gravity that it was hot enough to start a fusion reaction.
Compare the size of the Sun to the size of the Earth... The Sun is 860,000 miles across... The Earth is only about 8,000 miles across.
Lots of good info may be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_system
2007-05-09 22:44:14 · answer #1 · answered by John T 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because when the solar system was being still being created and aging millions of years ago, all of the planets were made of gas. But as time went on the inner planet lost more gas then the outer planet, due to distance to the sun. Hope I helped :D
2016-05-19 21:18:00 · answer #2 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Because it is made of an absolutely vast amount of gas, and due to its size the gas near the centre is compressed to an almost solid state. 99% of the mass of the entire solar system is located in the Sun.
2007-05-09 22:09:59 · answer #3 · answered by Jason T 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Even gasses have mass (i.e. weight), and the sun happens to be HUGE -- more than 100 times the diameter of Earth.
2007-05-13 07:42:39 · answer #4 · answered by Nature Boy 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋