Mass of the Sun
Written by Fraser Cain
The Sun, a G V Star.
The mass of the Sun is 1.98892 × 1030 kilograms.
That's a really big number, and it's really hard to put it into context, so let's write out the mass of the Sun, with all the zeros.
1,988,920,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms.
Still need to wrap your head around this? Let's give you some comparisons. The mass of the Sun is 333,000 times the mass of the Earth. It's 1,048 times the mass of Jupiter, and 3,498 times the mass of Saturn.
In fact, the Sun accounts for 99.8% of all the mass in the entire Solar System; and most of that non-Sun mass is Jupiter and Saturn. To say that the Earth is an insignificant speck is an understatement.
The Sun is massive, but it's not the most massive star out there. In fact, the most massive star we know of is Eta Carinae, which has a mass of 150 times the mass of the Sun.
We have written lots about stars here on Universe Today, including an article about the largest star in the Universe. And also have articles about Eta Carinae.
Here's an article from NASA that explains how astronomers measure the mass of stars, and here's another tool that gives the equations.
We have recorded an episode of Astronomy Cast just about the Sun called The Sun, Spots and All.
Filed under: Astronomy
