How hot is the Sun?

Life on Earth depends on the light and heat from the Sun. While the warmth from the Sun gently warms you on a sunny day, the core of the Sun is a mind-blowing 15 million degrees Celsius ( 27 million degrees Fahrenheit), and the surface is 5500 degrees Celsius ( 10000 degrees Fahrenheit).

That's hot enough to vaporise any material from Earth instantly.

image of the sun showing the temperature at the surface and in the core.

The outermost layer of the Sun's atmosphere is called the corona. It extends millions of miles into space and is made up of very hot, low density plasma. It's only visible to humans during a solar eclipse.

The temperature of the corona is hotter than the surface of the Sun ranging between 1 million and millions of degrees Celsius.

Why is the sun so hot?

The Sun's heat comes from the core. Under huge pressure and gravity, hydrogen atoms are forced together to form helium, releasing massive amounts of energy, which radiates outwards as heat and light. This is nuclear fusion.