The Sun

The Solar System

The world 'solar' means 'to do with the Sun'. The Sun and all the things in orbit around it make up the Solar System. It comprises a family of nine planets, most of which have one or more moons.Lost of other smaller objects, such as asteroids (minor planets) and comets, also travel around the Sun. The Sun, which is a star, is by far the largest body in the Solar System. The nine planets are: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.  

The head of the Solar System

The Sun is a huge ball of hot gas. It is 150 million kilometres away from the Earth. Sun is an ordinary star, like the thousands of others you see in the night sky. Without it life is not possible on Earth. People on the Earth have always recognized the importance of the Sun and have often worshiped it as God.

Brightness of the Sun

To many astronomers who study quasars, pulsars, white dwarfs, red giants, black holes, and other exotic members of the Universe, the Sun is a fairly dull, average sort of star.

It is but one of one hundred thousand million stars in the Milky Way    

galaxy, which is but one of the billions of  galaxies in the Universe. It appears very bright to us only because it is by far our closest star, the next closest is Alpha Centauri which is more than 250,000 times further away.