Quick facts about the sun
How big it is: 865,000 miles (1.392 million kilometers) across
How far away it is: 93 million miles (150 million km)
What type of star it is: A yellow dwarf star
The sun is the star at the center of our solar system. It's the largest, brightest and most massive object in the solar system, and it provides the light and heat that life on Earth depends on. Powered by a process called nuclear fusion, the sun can get hotter than 27 million degrees Fahrenheit (15 million degrees Celsius). The sun has been around for over 4 billion years, but one day, it will run out of fuel. Read on to learn more about what our local star is made of, how it formed and what will happen when it dies.
