The sun is the brightest thing in the sky and, unless you travel to some brighter star elsewhere in the galaxy or universe, is the brightest object you’ll ever see. It is the reason we are all alive, as without the star at the center of our solar system, everything would be frozen and lifeless.

It is huge, much bigger than any of the other planets, asteroids and comets put together that lie within the solar system. Still, the sun is considered to be an ordinary star, as there are millions of stars as big or slightly smaller than it. However, it is many, many times the diameter of Jupiter, the second largest object in the system, and comprises nearly 99% of the solar system’s mass.

Nuclear fusion reactions are how it generates all the energy needed to constantly output light and the streams of particles that emanate from it. As big and as powerful as it is, the sun does have structural layers, including a solid core. Beyond that, each layer is somewhat fluidic and in fact, the sun does not even rotate evenly, as the surface of the equator rotates faster than that near the poles. The surface is called the photosphere and above the surface is the chromosphere. Huge areas of gases are constantly pushed away from the sun, and the main area where these are concentrated is the corona.

The sun also has a magnetosphere, which is the extent of its magnetic field, but this goes out billions of miles, and even beyond Pluto. The effects of the sun, other than the warmth and light we experience every day, include solar wind, which affects the tails of comets and can affect the movement of spacecraft. When streams of particles hit the upper atmosphere of Earth, there are auroras near the north and south poles.

In reality, the sun is responsible for everything we see on Earth, as the planet itself would never have existed without it, nor would have humans who live from, worship and observe it every day.