Sun - NASA Science
Image of the Sun against the darkness of space

The Sun

The Sun is the star at the heart of our solar system. Its gravity holds the solar system together, keeping everything — from the biggest planets to the smallest bits of debris — in its orbit.

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Overview

The Sun's gravity holds the solar system together, keeping everything – from the biggest planets to the smallest particles of debris – in its orbit. The connection and interactions between the Sun and Earth drive the seasons, ocean currents, weather, climate, radiation belts and auroras. Though it is special to us, there are billions of stars like our Sun scattered across the Milky Way galaxy.

The Sun has many names in many cultures. The Latin word for Sun is “sol,” which is the main adjective for all things Sun-related: solar.

Pop Culture

The Sun has inspired us since ancient times. It’s central to mythology and religion in cultures around the world, including the ancient Egyptians, the Aztecs of Mexico, Native American tribes of North and South America, the Chinese, and many others.

Countless musicians have written songs about the Sun. The Beatles had a hit in 1969 with “Here Comes the Sun.” Other popular songs that reference the Sun include: “Walkin’ on the Sun” by Smashmouth; “Ain’t No Sunshine” by Bill Withers; “Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves; “Pocketful of Sunshine” by Natasha Bedingfield; and “Let the Sunshine In” by the Fifth Dimension.

If you're Superman or a fellow Kryptonian of comic book fame, your powers are heightened by the yellow glow of our Sun. There are several science fiction films featuring the Sun in the storyline.

Heliophysics Big Year

The Heliophysics Big Year is a global celebration of the Sun’s influence on Earth and the entire solar system.

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The Sun appears as a mottled orange orb, with several bright regions of swirling plasma appearing in pink and purple. A bright white flash of light appears in the upper right.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory captured this image of an X4.5 solar flare – as seen in the bright flash in the upper right – on May 6, 2024. The image shows a blend of 171 Angstrom and 131 Angstrom light, subsets of extreme ultraviolet light.
NASA
Featured Story

NASA, NOAA: Sun Reaches Maximum Phase in 11-Year Solar Cycle

In a teleconference with reporters on Tuesday, representatives from NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the international…

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On the left, the Sun shown in gold. It's fairly uniform. On the right, the Sun in gold has several bright active regions.

Sun Stories

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Article
5 min read

5 Surprising NASA Heliophysics Discoveries Not Related to the Sun

In this illustration, an exploding star powers jets of material. The star is shown as an almost flower-like shape. The purple �petals� represent clouds of material created in the explosion. The bluish-white and yellow center shows where the newly formed black hole begins driving the jets. The core of the jet pointed toward us is whitish and the broader regions are magenta. In the distance, on the far side of the star, you can see the opposite side of the jet disappearing into space.
Feature
1 min read

At night, a camera is on top of a tripod. The camera is pointing upward toward the sky. Filling the sky are stars and swaths of green aurora. Trees fill the lower background.
Against the outline of the southeastern United States, a circular shape moves from the center of the view (around Tennessee) to the southeast toward Florida. Inside the circular shape are bands of blues, yellows, and reds that change as the circle moves.
2 min read

Hurricane Helene’s Gravity Waves Revealed by NASA’s AWE

Article3 weeks ago
An animated gif showing a side-by-side comparison reveals Venus surface images. The left, labeled "WISPR," is captured via the Parker Solar Probe, showcasing a blurry grayscale view. The right, labeled "RADAR," presents a vibrant surface map in green, blue, and reddish hues using visible light imaging.
4 min read

Final Venus Flyby for NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Queues Closest Sun Pass

Article3 weeks ago
An artist's concept of the Wind spacecraft shows the spacecraft on the left outside Earth's magnetosphere, shown as a blue bubble extending around Earth.
5 min read

30 Years On, NASA’s Wind Is a Windfall for Studying our Neighborhood in Space

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The Sun

14 Images
The dark region seen on the face of the sun at the end of March 2013 is a coronal hole just above and to the right of the middle of the picture, which is a source of fast solar wind leaving the sun in this image from NASA Solar Dynamic Observatory.
This composite image of the Sun includes high-energy X-ray data from NASA's NuSTAR shown in blue; lower energy X-ray data from the XRT on the JAXA's Hinode mission shown in green; and ultraviolet light detected by the AIA on NASA's SDO shown in red.
NASA’s Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, or SOHO, constantly observes the outer regions of the Sun’s corona using a coronagraph, which blocks the bright solar disk.
A portion of the Sun, appears in red, yellow, orange, and black. A yellow burst of solar material juts off of the Sun, against the black expanse of space.
Tendrils of hot plasma stream from the Sun.
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Learn More and Get Involved

  • Cartoon illustration of the Sun

    For Kids: All About the Sun

    Facts and activities for K-4 explorers.

  • The dark region seen on the face of the sun at the end of March 2013 is a coronal hole just above and to the right of the middle of the picture, which is a source of fast solar wind leaving the sun in this image from NASA Solar Dynamic Observatory.

    NASA Photojournal: The Sun

    Images and videos of scientific interest.

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