Our Sun is about five billion years old and accounts for 99 % of
the total mass of this solar system and most scientists are
optimistic that we'll still have a functional sun billions of
years from now. MASS: 1.99 trillion, trillion, billion kg
SURFACE TEMPERA: 6,0000 C CORE TEMPERATURE: 15,600,0000 C ENERGY
OUTPUT: 386 billion, billion mega watts/second POWER LEVEL AT
EARTH: 1.4 kilo watts / sq meter Each second about 700,000,000
tons of hydrogen are converted to about 695,000,000 tons of
helium and 5,000,000 tons of energy in the form of gamma rays.
As this energy travels out toward the surface, the energy is
continuously absorbed and re-emitted at lower and lower
temperatures so that by the time it reaches the surface, it is
primarily in the form of visible light. Even though solar energy
is the largest source of energy received by the Earth, its
intensity at the Earth's surface is actually very low due to the
large distance between the Earth and the sun and the fact that
the Earth's atmosphere absorbs and