How Hot Is The Sun

Our Sun is the star at the center of our Solar System and is what makes our planet – Earth – a unique place to live. The light and energy generated by the Sun is what helps us to exist and sustain life. But just how hot is the Sun?

On the surface, the temperature of the Sun is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Deep down inside the Sun, at its core, the temperature is even higher – about 27 million degrees Fahrenheit. This incredibly hot temperature is enough to cause atoms to fuse together and create the light and energy that is emitted from the Sun.

Sitting even closer once you get past the core of the Sun is the radiative zone. This is a region of intense heat and pressure where radiation is continually exchanged between different parts of the Sun. The temperature of the radiative zone is about 5.7 million degrees Fahrenheit.

Further away from the Sun’s core is the convective zone. This is where the energy generated by the nuclear reactions inside the Sun’s core is released outward in the form of heat. The temperature of the convective zone falls to around 1 million degrees Fahrenheit.

Finally, as you move even further away, the temperature of the Sun decreases to around 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit at the photosphere. This is the visible surface where sunlight is emitted and what we see in the sky.

So when next you see the Sun in the sky, don’t forget its incredibly hot core that is helping to keep us alive.