SpaceAbout the Sun
The Sun is a star: a yellow dwarf about 4.5 billion years old, a hot glowing ball of hydrogen and helium at the centre of the solar system. It lies about 150 million kilometres from Earth. The Sun holds 99.8% of the mass of the whole solar system. The planets and everything else that orbits it were made from the little that was left over.
Source: NASA, read on 12 November 2026. Mass figures: NSSDCA Sun Fact Sheet.
How heavy is it?
NASA's Sun fact sheet gives the Sun's mass as 1,988,400 × 10²⁴ kg. Earth's is 5.9722 × 10²⁴ kg. The Sun is therefore about 332,900 times as massive as Earth. Jupiter, the largest planet, has a mass of 1,898 × 10²⁴ kg, so the Sun outweighs Jupiter about 1,048 times.
How far is it?
Earth is on average 149.6 million km from the Sun, 147.1 million km at its closest and 152.1 million km at its farthest. Sunlight covers that distance in about 8.3 minutes. So when you look at the Sun, you see it as it was a little over eight minutes ago. Never look at it directly: see the safety rule on the eclipses page.
Sunlight across the solar system
The farther a planet is, the longer sunlight takes to reach it and the fainter it is on arrival.
| World | Distance from the Sun | Sunlight takes |
|---|---|---|
| Mercury | 57.9 million km | 3.2 minutes |
| Venus | 108.2 million km | 6 minutes |
| Earth | 149.6 million km | 8.3 minutes |
| Mars | 228 million km | 12.7 minutes |
| Jupiter | 778.5 million km | 43.3 minutes |
| Saturn | 1,432 million km | 79.6 minutes |
| Uranus | 2,867 million km | 2.7 hours |
| Neptune | 4,515 million km | 4.2 hours |
| Pluto | 5,906.4 million km | 5.5 hours |
Figures: NASA NSSDCA Planetary Fact Sheet, last updated by NASA on 18 March 2025, read on 12 November 2026.
What the Sun does for Earth
The Sun's gravity holds the planets in their orbits. Its light and warmth make Earth the only place we know of that is inhabited by living things. The tilt of Earth's axis towards and away from the Sun through the year gives us the seasons, and sunlight bouncing off the Moon gives us the phases of the Moon.
Studying the Sun from India
India's first solar observatory in space, Aditya-L1, reached its halo orbit around the Sun-Earth L1 point on 6 January 2024. More on the ISRO missions page.