Our local
star.
The Sun holds 99.8% of the Solar System's mass and fuses 600 million tonnes of hydrogen every second. Its light, heat, and solar wind shape every world around it.
Peel back the atmosphere
The Sun is not a solid ball. It is a hot plasma with distinct layers, each hotter and more tenuous than the one below it.
The visible 'surface' of the Sun. Light escapes here, making it the layer we see with our eyes. Sunspots are cooler, darker patches in this layer.
Live solar imagery & flares
Near real-time 4K imagery from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and live solar flare alerts tracked by the DONKI system.
A comparison between the Sun and Earth
109 Earths across
The Sun is so large that roughly 1.3 million Earths could fit inside it. Yet it is only an average-sized star — some red supergiants would swallow Earth all the way out to Mars.
Keep exploring
The Sun is just the beginning. Next, trace how we built the machines that let us see it up close.