The Sun
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90 free The Sun trivia questions with answers — science & nature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
50 free The Sun trivia questions with answers. It's been worshipped by civilizations, studied by scientists, and powers all life on Earth. The Sun is a 4.6-billion-year-old nuclear furnace — and there's way more to it than you think.
30 of 90 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What type of celestial object is the Sun?
Star
The Sun is a star — specifically a G-type main-sequence star (G2V). It is the closest star to Earth and the center of our solar system.
Q 02Approximately how long does it take sunlight to reach Earth?
About 8 minutes
Light from the Sun takes approximately 8 minutes and 20 seconds to travel the roughly 150 million kilometers (93 million miles) to Earth.
Q 03What is the primary gas that makes up the Sun?
Hydrogen
The Sun is roughly three-quarters hydrogen by mass, and that hydrogen is the fuel for the fusion reactions in its core. Heavier elements such as oxygen, carbon, neon and iron together make up only a small fraction.
Q 04What process powers the Sun and produces its energy?
Nuclear fusion
The Sun is powered by nuclear fusion, where hydrogen atoms fuse together to form helium in its core, releasing enormous amounts of energy in the process.
Q 05What color would the Sun appear if viewed from space, without atmospheric interference?
White
The Sun actually emits white light. It appears yellow or orange from Earth's surface because the atmosphere scatters shorter (blue) wavelengths, making the remaining light look yellowish.
Q 06In ancient Egyptian mythology, who was the sun god?
Ra
Ra (also spelled Re) was the ancient Egyptian sun god and one of the most important deities in the Egyptian pantheon. He was believed to sail across the sky each day in a solar boat.
Q 07Which Jesuit astronomer feuded bitterly over priority in the discovery of sunspots?
Christoph Scheiner
Scheiner published his sunspot observations under the pseudonym 'Apelles' and clashed with a rival for years over who saw them first. Neither knew Johannes Fabricius had already published on sunspots in 1611.
Q 08What is the approximate surface temperature of the Sun?
About 5,500°C
The photosphere sits at about 5,500°C (around 5,778 K, or 9,940°F), while the core is around 15 million°C.
Q 09How many Earths could fit inside the Sun?
About 1.3 million
The Sun is about 109 Earths across, so roughly 1.3 million Earths fit by volume; by mass it takes only 330,000, because the Sun is far less dense than Earth.
Q 10What event occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, blocking the Sun's light?
Solar eclipse
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, casting a shadow on Earth. In a total solar eclipse, the Moon completely blocks the Sun's disk.
Q 11Which layer of the Sun flashes reddish-pink for a few seconds at total eclipses?
Chromosphere
The chromosphere sits between the visible surface and the corona and glows a distinctive reddish-pink from hydrogen emission. It is normally drowned out by the surface's glare and appears only when the Moon blocks the disk.
Q 12What is the approximate age of the Sun?
About 4.6 billion years
The Sun is approximately 4.6 billion years old. It formed from a collapsing cloud of gas and dust (a solar nebula) and is roughly halfway through its main-sequence life.
Q 13What will the Sun eventually become at the end of its life?
White dwarf
Q 21How long does the Sun take to complete one orbit around the centre of the Milky Way?
About 230 million years
The Sun drags the whole Solar System around the galaxy at roughly 230 km/s, and one lap — a galactic year — takes about 220 to 250 million years. It has managed around 20 laps since it formed.
Q 22Roughly how fast does the solar wind typically stream past Earth?
About 400 km/s
The solar wind typically streams past Earth at about 400 km/s, with fast streams reaching 750 km/s; at that pace a parcel of it takes around four days to arrive.
Q 23Roughly how strong is gravity at the Sun's surface compared with Earth's?
About 28 times
The Sun is not massive enough to go supernova. In about 5 billion years, it will expand into a red giant, shed its outer layers to form a planetary nebula, and the remaining core will become a white dwarf.
Q 14Roughly how long does a typical coronal mass ejection take to reach Earth?
About 1 to 3 days
A coronal mass ejection typically needs about 1 to 3 days to reach Earth; even the fastest, moving at over 2,000 km/s, take well over half a day.
Q 15What percentage of the solar system's total mass does the Sun contain?
About 99.86%
The Sun contains approximately 99.86% of the total mass of the entire solar system. Jupiter, the largest planet, accounts for most of the remaining mass.
Q 16In Greek mythology, who was the god of the Sun?
Helios
Helios was the Greek Titan who drove the Sun's four-horse chariot across the sky each day; his siblings were Selene, the Moon, and Eos, the Dawn.
Q 17What is the visible surface of the Sun called?
Photosphere
The photosphere is the visible surface of the Sun — the layer that emits the light we see. It is about 500 km thick and has a temperature of approximately 5,500°C.
Q 18How long is one complete solar cycle (sunspot cycle)?
About 11 years
The solar cycle lasts approximately 11 years, during which the Sun's activity rises and falls. Sunspot numbers increase to a solar maximum and then decrease to a solar minimum over this period.
Q 19What is the approximate escape velocity at the Sun's surface?
About 618 km/s
The Sun's escape velocity is about 618 km/s, some 55 times Earth's 11.2 km/s; a rocket would need that speed at the photosphere to coast away forever.
Q 20Which of NASA’s spacecraft, launched in 2018, was built to fly through the Sun’s corona?
Parker Solar Probe
Parker Solar Probe launched in August 2018 and has flown within about 6.2 million km of the Sun's surface, closer than any spacecraft before it.
Surface gravity on the Sun is about 28 times Earth's, roughly 274 m/s², so an 80 kg person would weigh more than two tonnes at the photosphere.
Q 24In which arm of the Milky Way does the Sun sit?
Orion Arm
The Sun sits in the Orion Arm, also called the Local Arm, a minor spur between the larger Sagittarius and Perseus arms, about 26,000 light-years from the galactic centre.
Q 25What was the Carrington Event of 1859?
A massive solar storm that disrupted telegraph systems worldwide
The biggest geomagnetic storm on record: the CME hit so hard that telegraph lines sparked and offices caught fire, and auroras glowed as far south as the Caribbean.
Q 26How long does the Sun's equator take to spin once around?
About 25 days
The equator laps the poles: 25.6 days versus 33.5. A solid ball could not do that; a ball of plasma can.
Q 27Where does the Sun's solar wind give out and interstellar space begin?
Heliopause
The heliopause is where the solar wind can no longer push back the interstellar medium; Voyager 1 crossed it in August 2012, about 121 AU from the Sun.
Q 28What is the Latin word for the Sun?
Sol
Sol is the Latin word for the Sun; it survives in solar, solstice (from sol plus sistere, 'to stand still'), solarium and parasol.
Q 29Which spacecraft, launched in December 1995, was built to observe the Sun from the L1 point?
SOHO
SOHO, the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, launched on 2 December 1995 and took station at the L1 Lagrange point between Earth and the Sun, far outliving its planned two-year mission.
Q 30Roughly how long does a neutrino produced in the Sun's core take to reach the surface and escape?
About 2 seconds
Neutrinos barely interact with matter, so they stream straight out of the Sun in a couple of seconds and reach Earth about eight minutes later. Trillions pass through your body every second without you noticing.