We get so busy in our lives that we don’t pay attention to little important things that keep us going. Although, when it is nature and ‘Sun’, it is not small. We are surrounded by greenery and blessed by sunlight, but we fail to notice them. It used to be fun to bask in the Sun during winters, wasn’t it? Kids love it! But have you made them aware of the trivial facts about the ‘Sun’? These cool facts about the sun for kids will them thirsting for more!
Facts About the Sun for Children
Do your kids know how big the sun is or how much energy it pumps out? Are they aware of the fact that human beings cannot live without sunlight and that it’s vital to our well-being? From receiving Vitamin D from this gigantic star to solar energy and many benefits that enrich our lives. Here are 20 amazing facts about the sun for kids that will leave you feeling simply hooked! Keep reading…
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The Sun is composed of hydrogen and helium gases. It’s over 4.5 billion years old and formed from a cloud of dust, slowly gaining heat and forming a huge centre.
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Sunspots are areas of the sun that are cooler than the rest. They are often darker in tone than warmer areas.
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Gases shoot out from the sun’s surface into space. Although these are beautiful to look at, they sometimes cause troubles with satellite signals and interfere with television and cell phone transmissions.
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It takes eight minutes for sunlight to reach the Earth. This is what we call the “speed of light.”
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The Earth revolves around the Sun.
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Aristarchus was the first scientist in the world to theorize that the Earth and the other planets orbited around the Sun over 2000 years ago.
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Isaac Newton brought the theory of the planets orbiting around the sun to reality with the introduction of the law of gravity through his books back in 1642 to 1727.
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Avoid looking at the sun with naked eyes as it may damage vision and cause impairment due to prolonged exposure. Scientists look at the ‘Sun’ using customized filtered telescopes.
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In ancient culture, it was believed that ‘Sun’ is a God. The ancient Egyptians revered the Sun as ‘Ra’ while the Aztecs named the Sun God as ‘Tonatiuh.’
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The Sun is one million times bigger than the Earth.
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When the moon comes between the Earth and sun, that’s when a ‘Solar Eclipse’ occurs.
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Approximately 74% of the sun is composed of hydrogen while helium contributes to 24% of its composition. Heavier elements such as oxygen, carbon, iron, and neon make up for the remaining 2%.
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Solar winds composed of electrons and neutrons escape the Sun’s gravitational field due to their high kinetic energies, and the high temperature of the corona of the sun and planets such as Earth with strong magnetic fields deflect these charged particles from reaching the atmosphere.
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Nicholas Copernicus was a polish scientist who wrote a book named ‘Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium’ which translated to ‘Concerning the revolution of the heavenly spheres.’ In this book, he tried to prove that planets revolved around the Sun. People who believed him were imprisoned and sentenced to death.
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The Sun is a huge star and contributes to 99.86% of the Solar System’s mass!
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The Sun’s diameter is 110 times wider than that of the Earth. What’s shocking? The Sun is actually 865,000 miles (1,392,000 km) wide!
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According to scientists, it is hypothesized that the Sun will one day consume the Earth along with Venus and Mercury, once it burns up its Hydrogen composition. In the next 130 million years, as the sun burns up helium, it will be dubbed as the ‘White Dwarf’ and transform into a huge red giant once it absorbs those planets in the solar system.
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The weight of the sun is a mind-boggling 4,385,214,857,119,399,823,317,774,893,056 pounds! It’s such a long number that you’d have a hard time reading it out loud!
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The temperature of the sun is approximately 9,941 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s 5,500 degrees Celsius and 74 times hotter than the highest recorded temperature on Earth (which is 134 degrees Fahrenheit or 56 degrees Celsius!)
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The Earth receives 94 billion megawatts of energy from the Sun which is equal to powering up 4 trillion light bulbs of 100 watts each! The amount of energy emitted by the sun comes to 386 billion megawatts!
The Sun is a huge star in the Solar System and one of the many wonders of the universe. Thankfully, we’ve shed some light on the subject that hopefully piqued your interest. Tell your kids about this amazing information of Sun they will surely be mesmerised by it. Isn’t it amazing how one big star is so vast in potential and magnitude in contrast to the Earth? Well, we sure think it certainly is amazing, and we hope you think so too!
