Sun Facts for Kids – 5 Stunning Facts about The Sun

Do you like the warm and sunny summer days?! Let’s discover five stunning Sun facts for kids.

Sun Facts for Kids Fact Number 1: The Sun Is The Earth’s Closest Star

The Sun is approximately 93 million miles away from Earth. Although the Sun is Earth’s closest star it is still so far away that it takes light about 8 minutes and 20 seconds for it to reach us. The Sun is known as a yellow dwarf star.

Sun Facts for Kids Fact Number 2: The Sun Is Currently in The Middle of Its Lifecycle

The Sun is estimated to be about 4.5 billion years old, putting it at the middle of its life cycle. The next stage of the Sun’s life cycle will occur in roughly 5 billion years. The Sun will become a big, cooler star called a Red Giant. The next stage after that will see the Sun shrink to around the same size as the Earth and it will be known as a small White Dwarf star.

Sun Facts for Kids Fact number 3: We Can’t Live Without The Sun

The Sun is what keeps everything on Earth alive. The Sun makes the Earth warm enough to live on and the Sun provides light for us on Earth. Without it there would be no plants, animals or food and humans wouldn’t be able to exist. We use the Sun as a renewable resource through solar panels. We also get Vitamin D from the Sun.

Sun Facts for Kids Fact Number 4: The Sun’s Gravity Holds Our Entire Solar System Together

The Latin word for Sun is ”Sol”. This is where the name Solar System comes from. The Sun has the strongest gravitational pull in the whole Solar System. All the planets in the solar system are bound to the Sun by gravity. It is the Sun’s gravitational pull that keeps us at a comfortable distance from it and stops the Earth from becoming overheated.

Sun Facts for Kids Fact Number 5: The Sun Can Be Completely Covered by The Moon

Every two years or so, the Moon comes between the Sun and the Earth and all three are perfectly aligned. When this happens the Moon completely blocks out the Sun and a shadow is cast on the Earth. This is called a Solar Eclipse. Although the Moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun, it  still blocks it out because the Moon is 400 times closer to the Earth. A solar eclipse can last for a few seconds or minutes. Full solar eclipses are quite rare and not everyone gets to experience one, it is more often that a half solar eclipse occurs. This is when the Moon partially covers the Sun.

We hope you enjoyed learning more things about the Sun as much as we loved teaching you about them. Now that you know how majestic the Sun is, you can move on to learn about our Space like: The Universe and Sunspots.

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