10 Fun Facts for Kids About the Sun

Searching for quick facts about sun? Are you preparing a lesson plan about the sun? Has your three year old recently asked about the sun and you would like to share some trivia? Here are a few fun facts about the sun.

All living things on Earth are dependent on the sun to stay alive.

All life on Earth needs the sun to thrive and grow. All energy that humans consume originates from the sun, either directly or indirectly.

Plants need sunlight to grow. Humans need plants, or animals that eat plants, to stay alive. Also, electricity is generated by burning oil or coal, which is essentially ancient plants. (Some electricity is created using solar or wind energy, which is also dependent on the sun.) If the sun were to disappear, all plants and animals would eventually die.

The sun is a star.

The sun is a star, but appears to be much larger because it is so close to earth. It is one of the 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. It is approximately 93 million miles from Earth.

The sun is the largest object in our solar system.

The sun is larger than all of the planets. Its radius is approximately 432,000 miles. This is nearly 109 times as large as the Earth. It is about 865,000 miles across.

The sun is incredibly hot.

The outer part of the sun is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. That is about fifty times hotter than the temperature at which water boils. It is so hot that all metals would be vaporized on the sun.

The sun is about 70% hydrogen and 28% helium.

The core of the sun converts hydrogen to helium. The sun is basically a giant ball of gas.

The sun has dark spots known as “sunspots.”

While you cannot see them without a telescope, the sun has some dark areas. They are referred to as sunspots, and are dark whirlpools of magnetic disturbance. They appear darker because they are about a thousand degrees cooler than the surrounding gas.

The surface of the sun has lots of eruptions.

Giant flames, known as prominences, erupt from the sun’s chromosphere. Some of these eruptions are even bigger than the Earth. Very large eruptions are called flares. They are caused by sunspots.

All of the planets in our solar system revolve around the sun.

The Earth, as well as other planets such as Mars, Venus, Saturn, and Jupiter, move around the sun. The length of time it takes a planet to revolve around the sun is referred to as a year. There are 365 days in one Earth year. The length of years vary on other planets.

The four seasons on Earth are determined by how close the Earth is to the sun.

Each year, as the Earth revolves around the sun, the seasons change. It is hottest in the summer when it is closest to the sun. However, it is not always the same seasons on all parts of Earth. Some parts of the Earth are closer to the sun at different times.

It takes 8.3 minutes for light from the sun to reach the Earth.

When you see the sun, you are actually seeing what it looked like 8.3 minutes ago. It takes that amount of time for light to reach the Earth.

These are just ten quick facts about the sun. Looking for trivia about planets? Please read “Facts for Kids About the Planet Mercury” and “10 Mars Facts for Kids.” You might also check out “Interesting Facts for Kids About the Planet Neptune.”

SOURCES:

The Sun and Other Stars by World Book
The Sun by Ron Miller