Astronomy and SpaceStars |
What is the sun made of? |
The sun is an incandescent ball of gases. Its mass is 1.8 x 1027 tons or 1.8 octillion tons (a mass 330,000 times as great as Earth).
| Element | Percent of Mass |
| Hydrogen | 73.46 |
| Helium | 24.85 |
| Oxygen | 0.77 |
| Carbon | 0.29 |
| Iron | 0.16 |
| Neon | 0.12 |
| Nitrogen | 0.09 |
| Silicon | 0.07 |
| Magnesium | 0.05 |
| Sulfur | 0.04 |
| Other | 0.10 |