The Sun: Our Star

What this quiz asks

• What produces the energy that makes the Sun shine?
• Roughly how long does sunlight take to reach Earth?
• Which chemical element makes up most of the mass of the object shown here?
• The Sun holds more than 99% of all the mass in the Solar System.
• What is the name of the Sun's visible surface, the layer that gives off most of its light?
• Is it safe to look straight at a partial solar eclipse without eye protection?
• Roughly how hot is the Sun's visible surface?
• Why do sunspots look dark?
• The number of sunspots rises and falls in a regular cycle. About how long does one cycle last?
• Roughly how old is the Sun?
• Select ALL of these that are caused by the solar wind or solar storms.
• About how many Earths, lined up side by side, would stretch across the Sun's diameter?
• In which month is Earth closest to the Sun?
• The Sun spins faster at its equator than near its poles.
• Which layer of the Sun's outer atmosphere reaches temperatures of over a million degrees?
• Order these parts of the Sun from the centre outwards.
• Which NASA spacecraft became the first to fly through the Sun's corona, in 2021?
• Select ALL of these that happen during a total solar eclipse.
• In 1859 a huge solar storm made telegraph lines spark and lit auroras as far south as the Caribbean. What is it called?
• What name is given to the period from about 1645 to 1715, when sunspots almost vanished?