The Sun is one of 2 x 1011 stars in the Milky Way galaxy. While it may appear quite large, it is neither the largest star nor the smallest. The Sun is, however, the largest object in our solar system. Its mass is 334,000 times that of Earth. Scientists classify the Sun as a G2 star, meaning it is the second hottest star of the yellow G class of stars.

The Sun is made almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. Sunlight is produced by atomic fusion, the same process that powered the hydrogen bomb. This process occurs across three sections of the Sun: the core, the radiative zone, and the convective zone.

In the Sun's core, temperatures soar to (27 million°F) 15 million°C. The heat, combined with an internal pressure 340 billion times Earth's air pressure at sea level, triggers thermonuclear reactions that convert hydrogen gas to helium. The resulting...