The Sun

How much do you know about the sun? Did you know that it is the closest star to the planet Earth? The sun is actually just like billions of other stars in the sky. It just looks different because it is so close. It is also the center of the solar system. The sun is a huge ball of gas. The temperature of the sun is over 27,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit.

From Earth, the sun doesn’t look that big, but the sun is so large that more than a million Earths could fit inside of it. The sun is by far the largest object in the solar system. It is even bigger than the planet Jupiter.

Astronomers say that the sun has layers. These layers are called the photosphere, chromosphere, and the corona. Astronomers have also discovered that the sun spins just like the Earth except more slowly.

The sun has quiet periods and active periods. During active periods, there are solar flares and sunspots. Sunspots are dark spots that often appear on the surface of the sun. What makes these sunspots? Scientists think that they are cool spots. Solar flares are bursts of hot gases. These bursts shoot far into the solar system.