Sun
The Sun, or Sol, is the star at the center of the solar system, and it accounts for over 99% of the mass of the solar system. By mass, it is composed of 72% hydrogen, 26% helium and 2% trace elements of oxygen, carbon, neon, nitrogen, magnesium, iron, and silicon.[1] The eight planets, including Earth, orbit the sun, as do countless other small objects. It provides the Earth with light and heat. Astronomers classify it as a yellow dwarf with a spectral type of G2V.
The sun has a diameter of about 870,000 miles (1.4 million kilometers); some 1.3 million Earths could fit inside its volume. It is an average-sized star. Its surface temperature is 6000 K, while the temperature of its core is around 13.6 million K. The inner layer of the sun, called the core, is where most fusion takes place. Beyond that is the radiation zone and then the convection zone. Outside that is the photosphere, the visible layer of the sun. It would take anywhere between 17,000 and 50 million years for photons produced in the core to be emitted at the surface, being absorbed and re-emitted countless times. The atmosphere, including the corona, surrounds the photosphere. The sun is located about halfway between the center of the Milky Way galaxy and its edge, and at the speed at which it is travelling around the galaxy, it would take around 230-250 million years to orbit the galactic center.
The sun produces a vast amount of energy, only a tiny fraction of which the Earth receives, yet this small amount powers practically all life (and industry) on Earth, either directly or indirectly. It is also the main force controlling Earth's climate and weather. Plants and other organisms capture the energy of the sun in a process called photosynthesis. Animals and other heterotrophs obtain food and energy from consuming plants or from consuming animals which have consumed the plants. Only a few microscopic organisms obtain energy directly from chemical reactions.
Human civilization, too, is dependent on the sun. Much of humanity's industrial energy needs are obtained through the combustion of fossil fuels, the remains of dead plants and animals. Uneven heating of the atmosphere provides wind power. Also, the sun evaporates water from lower-lying bodies of water; this then falls as rain and flows back down channels, providing hydroelectric power. On a limited basis, solar power is directly utilized. Geothermal energy and nuclear energy are examples of energy sources to which the sun does not directly contribute.
Origins
According to the materialist view, what eventually became the solar system initially existed as a large, rotating cloud of dust and gas, composed of hydrogen and helium produced in the Big Bang as well as small amounts of heavier elements. Around 4.57 billion years ago, the cloud began to contract, perhaps as a result of a shock wave from a nearby supernova. Inertia caused the rotating cloud to flatten into a disk. Most of the mass concentrated in the middle, and began to heat up. Eventually, the kinetic energy of the hydrogen was sufficient to overcome the electromagnetic repulsion between the protons, and fusion began. The resulting solar wind helped clear away much of the material which had not coalesced into planets or other orbiting bodies.[2] The sun is most likely a third-generation star.
According to the biblical record, God created the sun on the fourth day of Creation.[3]. In 1979, astonomer John Eddy made measurements indicating that the Sun is shrinking at a rate of 0.1% per century, which would make the ancient sun argument put forth by those promoting the materialist view unlikely. At the rate of shrinking measured, a 4.5 billion year old sun would have been larger than the solar system at creation and therefore have swallowed up the earth. It is therefore postulated that the shrinking is what actually releases the heat from the sun through gravitational collapse, not nuclear fusion. These data support the notion that the sun was created only a few thousand years ago. It also shows that the life of the sun is quite limited and will not survive for several billion years more, as evolutionists and other secularlists claim[4].
According to the Apache Creation Story, Creator, the One Who Lives Above, created the sun by singing it into existence after he had created the Girl-Without-Parents.[Citation Needed].