Star · Updated May 2026
Sun.
The Sun is a G-type main-sequence star at the centre of the solar system, with a surface temperature of about 5,778 K and a diameter of 1,392,700 km — large enough to fit 1.3 million Earths inside it. It contains 99.86% of the system's mass, fuses about 600 million tonnes of hydrogen into helium every second, and drives every orbit you can see in this viewer.
Open Sun in the viewer →Key facts
In this viewer the Sun is rendered with a custom GLSL plasma shader: Fractal Brownian Motion noise drives the convection cells, limb darkening flattens the edges, and the colour ramp follows real black-body radiation from a 5,778 K surface to ~10,000 K spicule tips.
Atmosphere
The Sun has no solid surface — what we call the photosphere is the layer where the plasma becomes opaque to visible light. Above it sits the chromosphere (a few thousand km of cooler hydrogen) and the corona, which paradoxically reaches over a million degrees and is only visible during total eclipses or with coronagraphs. The solar wind streams continuously from the corona out past Pluto, shaping the heliosphere itself.
Interior
The core occupies the inner 25% of the radius and runs at roughly 15 million K under a pressure of 250 billion atmospheres. Energy from fusion takes 100,000+ years to random-walk out through the radiative zone, then convects rapidly through the outer third before escaping as the photons we see. The granulation visible in solar telescopes is the top of those convection cells.
Formation
The Sun condensed from a giant molecular cloud roughly 4.6 billion years ago. As the protostar contracted, conservation of angular momentum spun up a flat disc — the same disc that became the planets. The Sun is currently middle-aged: it has another ~5 billion years of stable hydrogen burning before swelling into a red giant.
Orbit
The Sun itself orbits the centre of the Milky Way at roughly 220 km/s, completing one galactic year about every 230 million Earth years.
Notable missions
- Parker Solar Probe (2018– · Active) — The first spacecraft to "touch" the Sun, repeatedly diving inside the corona at over 200 km/s.
- Solar Orbiter (2020– · Active) — ESA / NASA mission imaging the poles and inner heliosphere.
- SOHO (1995– · Active) — Decades of continuous solar observation from L1.
How to view Sun in 3D
This page is part of an interactive 3D solar system viewer built with Three.js, WebGL 2.0, and custom GLSL shaders. Sun orbits the Sun in real time alongside every other planet, with adjustable time speed, scale sliders, and a fly mode that lets you pilot a spacecraft between bodies under realistic gravity.
Fly to Sun now →Frequently asked questions
How big is the Sun compared to Earth?
The Sun is about 109 times Earth's diameter and 333,000 times its mass. About 1.3 million Earths would fit inside it.
How hot is the Sun?
The visible surface (photosphere) is around 5,778 K. The core reaches roughly 15 million K, and the corona — strangely — exceeds a million K.
How long until the Sun dies?
About 5 billion years before it swells into a red giant. Earth becomes uninhabitable long before that, around 1 billion years from now, as solar luminosity rises.
Sources & methodology
Numbers cross-referenced with the sources below; surface and atmosphere descriptions reflect findings as of May 2026. Renderings in the 3D viewer use textures based on Solar System Scope and NASA imagery.