About 4 1/2 billion years ago, a bunch of gases and materials called elements, entered the solar system forming a giant star. Our Sun.

The sun contains gases and elements such as hydrogen, helium, calcium, sodium, magnesium, and iron. You can find most of these on Earth. The Sun is very hot. The middle is 10 million degrees c.

The Sun looks small, but that is because it is 93- million miles away. Earth is about 8000 million miles wide. The Sun is about 900,000 million miles wide. If you could imagine the Sun like a basket ball, Earth would be the size of the ball from a ball point pen.

You should never look directly at the Sun. Not even with sunglasses. Our eyes are not built to look at something as bright as the Sun. The Sun could blind you if you look at it even for a few seconds.

Without our sun, there would be no life on Earth. Without our sun, Earth would be a frozen dark ball, floating dead in space. We need our sun for light, heat, energy, and communications.

Our Sun will stay the way it is for about 5 billion more years. After that the heat will exhaust the hydrogen, during this time, it will also burn helium. The Sun will then expand 100 times it's normal size. It will then be called "A Red Giant." Then, after that, it will shrink very tiny. When this happens, it will be called," A White Dwarf."

For more information visit the following sites:

http://www.solarviews.com/eng/sun.htm

http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/planetarium/solarsystem/sun.html

http://www.museum.vic.gov.au/planetarium/solarsystem/sun.html