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How heavy is the Sun? Jupiter? The Earth?

How heavy is the Sun? Jupiter? The Earth?


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Olivia,

I am going to use some very, very big numbers here to describe how heavy each of these objects are. When we have so many "zeros" we use magnitudes of power to describe the size. For example: 10 times 10 is 100; but this is the same as 10 to the second power (or 10 squared). If I use a number that has 10 to the 10th power, it means that 10 is multiplied by itself 10 times. That, Olivia, is a very big number.

Now, to the size of Earth. The Earth has a weight of 5.9737 times 10 to the 24th power in kilograms.

Here is the number written out.

5,973,700,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms

Jupiter has a weight of 1.8986 times 10 to the 27th power in kilograms.

This number written out is:

1,896,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms

The Sun, is so massive that it has 98.8% of the mass of the entire Solar System just by itself. It has a weight of 2 times 10 to the 30th power kilograms.

That number written out is:

2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kilograms

A kilogram is about 2.2 pounds.

The reason all the planets orbit around our Sun is because it is so massive. It has a gravitational pull that is so strong, even Jupiter can not escape the tug of the sun. And, of course; the Earth is many magnitudes smaller than the Sun and Jupiter, so there is no way our Earth will ever wander out of its path and away into the darkness of space.

Dan Pope Certified Broadcast Meteorologist KSL

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