The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System which the planets move around it in orbits.
The Sun is a star and the largest object in our solar system. The planets in our solar system move around the sun in orbits. Our sun can be seen in the sky in the day time. It is a large yellow ball. The sun is basically a very large ball of non-stop explosions. These explosions give off a lot of energy. Even though the sun is very far from the earth, we still feel this energy. The Sun is so bright that it can hurt to look at it and can damage your eyesight, so never stare at the sun and never use binoculars or a telescope to look at it. The Sun makes light, heat and the solar wind. Solar wind moves past the earth outside our atmosphere. It is made of small particles that fly away from the sun. The sun is the main source of energy for life on Earth.
The Sun is at the middle of our solar system. Each planet travels in a more-or-less round orbit with the sun in the center. Each planet orbits at a different distance from the sun. The orbits of the planets are not perfect circles. They are closed-curves called ellipses. The planets closest to the Sun get more heat. Planets farther away are colder.
Almost all life on our planet ultimately depends on the light energy that comes from our Sun. Plants use solar energy as food so they can grow. This process is called photosynthesis, the green in the leaves is the pigment.
In the center of the Sun, in its core, great heat and pressure combine hydrogen gas into helium gas which produces large amounts of energy. This is called nuclear fusion.
People can look at the Sun if they use special lenses that make it safe. When they do this, darker spots are sometimes seen on the surface of the Sun; these spots are called sunspots. The number of sunspots on the Sun gets bigger and then smaller in a cycle of about 11 years. The number affects the weather on Earth and can also affect electronics.
Scientists think that the Sun started from a very large cloud of dust and small bits of ice 4.6 billion years ago. At the center of that huge cloud, some of the material started to build up into a ball. Once this ball got big enough, reactions inside it caused that ball to shine.
At that point, the Sun blew away all the rest of the cloud from itself, and the planets formed from the rest of this cloud.
At its core, or very center, hydrogen atoms are collided together to form helium. This process is called nuclear fusion. These helium atoms then travel from the core to the surface of the sun, called the photosphere, where they release their energy. Helium atoms can take thousands of years to reach the Sun's surface because other atoms get in their way.
If the Sun is viewed through a very special telescope, dark areas known as sunspots can be seen. These areas are caused by the sun's magnetic field. The sunspots only look dark because the rest of the Sun is very bright.
This is a cycle of 11 years, and every 11 years, there are more sunspots on the Sun than in the past or future years. Between these 11 years, sunspots may decrease in number. This cycle has been around since about the 1700s; before that was the Maunder Minimum, a few hundred years where there were very few sunspots. Astronomers don't know what caused this.
Some space telescopes, like the ones that orbit the sun have seen huge arches that extend from the sun. These are called solar prominences. Solar prominences come in many different shapes and sizes; some of them are so large that the Earth could fit inside of them, and there are a few shaped like hands!
Sometimes, the Sun "disappears" from the sky, and all that people see is a black but shining ball. This is because the Moon has moved right in front of the Sun and blocks almost all of its light. These happen almost every year, and very similar solar eclipses happen every 18 years, 11.3 days; a period called the Saros.
Scientists called astrophysicists say our Sun is a main-sequence star in the middle of its life. In about another 4-5 billion years, they think it will get bigger and become a 