The nearest star to the Earth is called the Sun. This huge ball of hot, glowing gas is 15 million degrees Celsius at the centre, and is over a million times the size of the Earth. It looks different to the other stars in the sky because the Earth is relatively close to it - about 150 million kilometres away. Like all of the planets in our Solar System the Earth travels around, or orbits, the Sun. The Earth's orbit around the Sun is elliptical. This means that it isn't a circle - it is more like a stretched circle. The Sun is very important to the Earth. All of our energy comes from the Sun in the form of light and heat. Without
the Sun's energy life would not exist on Earth. |
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