Our amazing Sun!

In light of the amazing northern lights show set off by powerful solar flair over the past few days (check out the video below!), here are some interesting facts about our own amazing Sun!

The sun's mass is 1,989,100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg
The sun's volume is 1,409,272,569,059,860,000 km3
The sun's age is 4,600,000,000 years
The sun is 150,000,000 kilometers away from the Earth
The sun is an average star
The sun is mostly made up of hydrogen (75% of the mass) and helium (25% of the mass) and some heavier elements (0.1%)
The sun is a plasma (neither a solid nor a gas)
The sun produces its energy through nuclear fusion in its core
The sun's core temperature is 15,700,000 kelvin
The sun's surface temperature is only 5778 K "cool"
the sun's solar constant is 1365 - 1369 W/m2
The sun will become a red giant in about 5,000,000,000 years!

see: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/articles/fusion/ also http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/explore/ and http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Display=Facts&Object=Sun http://www.space.com/14345-powerful-solar-storm-sets-amazing-northern-lights-show.html