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What is the Mass of Our Sun? Solar Mass With Facts!

mass of the sun

When you look at our sun, its size seems like a large football. As for celestial objects, mostly, we see our sun and our moon in the sky, which is large enough. But there are billions of celestial objects in our solar system, some are large but some are very small in size. So, every object that has size, must have mass. Then you must be wondering, what is the mass of the sun in these all billions of objects?

Though there are a lot of large objects just in our solar system including our sun, all eight planets, hundreds of moons, billions of asteroids and comets, and many more. But when considering the Mass of the Sun, just our sun contains 99.86% of the mass of our whole solar system. 

In this article, you will learn about all terms related to the Mass of Our Sun, like Sun Mass in kg, Weight of Sun, 1 Solar Mass, and many more with interesting facts and information. 

Mass of the Sun

Our sun is the largest object in our solar system. The mass of the sun is approximately 1.988×1030 kilograms which is also known as 1 Solar Mass. The second-largest object in our solar system is Planet Jupiter. Compared to Jupiter, Sun’s Mass is 1047 times Jupiter’s. 

Considering the size, our sun is not much heavier because it is made of gases. Mostly, Hydrogen and Helium contain the total mass of the sun. Sun has almost 73% hydrogen, 25% helium, and almost 2% heavier elements like oxygen, carbon, iron, and others.

As below you can see, sun mass in different units:

  • Sun mass in kg = 1.988×1030 kg
  • Sun mass in tons = 2.19 ×1027 t 
  • Sun mass in metric tons = 1.988×1027 t 

⇒ (1 ton or US ton = 907.18 kg)

⇒ (1 metric ton or tonnes = 1000 kg)

How much is 1 Solar Mass?

A Solar Mass is a standard unit in astronomy, in comparison to which large stellar objects’ mass is get measured. One Solar Mass is the mass of the Sun which is approximately equal to 1.9885×1030 kg.

1 Solar Mass (M☉) = 1.9885 × 1030 kg

The solar mass helps to compare stellar masses, such as stars, nebulae, stellar clusters, galaxies, and black holes. 

Mass of Sun Compared to Earth

While comparing the weight of the sun with our Earth, it seems very insignificant. Because our earth is very small in comparison with the Sun. The mass of the earth is approximately 6.0 × 1024 kg. But according to mass, the sun is 333000 times heavier compared to earth. 

It is because the sun is quite large in size but the sun’s average density is lesser than the earth’s average density. Mostly, Earth is made of solid material but the sun is made of gases. 

Must Read:- Interesting facts about the Earth

An interesting fact about the Mass of Our Sun

Sun is the reason behind life on earth. It gives us energy in form of the sun’s radiation (light). But, do you know, our sun losing mass?

Yes! It loses mass to give energy in form of light. 

Our sun loses too much mass per second. According to an estimation by scientists, the sun loses mass around 4,000,000,000 kg per second to convert it into energy (solar radiation). So far, It has converted almost 0.03% of the total mass of the sun into energy. Which is approximately more than 100 times of earth’s mass. 

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