One Million Earths Could Fit Inside the Sun

The Sun's sheer scale is difficult to comprehend, as it accounts for an astonishing 99.86 percent of all the mass in our solar system. This gravitational dominance is what holds all the planets, from massive Jupiter to tiny Mercury, in their orbits. While the Sun is considered a medium-sized star in the grand scheme of the universe, its size dwarfs that of our home world. Its diameter is about 109 times that of Earth, and its mass is approximately 330,000 times greater.

If you were to treat the planets as containers to be filled, the Sun's vast interior volume could hold about 1.3 million Earths. This immense capacity is a result of its enormous dimensions. But it's what happens deep inside the Sun that makes it the powerhouse of our solar system. In its core, temperatures soar to around 15 million degrees Celsius, creating the perfect conditions for nuclear fusion to occur.

This incredible process fuses hydrogen atoms into helium, releasing tremendous amounts of energy in the process. Every second, the Sun converts about 620 million metric tons of hydrogen into helium. This reaction has been powering our star for about 4.6 billion years and is what provides the light and heat essential for life on Earth. The energy produced in the core takes thousands of years to travel to the surface and finally radiate out into space.