Did you know that the diameter of the Sun is almost 110 times greater than the diameter of the Earth?

The diameter of the Sun is nearly 1.4 million km (1,400,000 km). The diameter of the Earth is almost 13,000 km. The Earth is located at a distance of about 150 million km (150,000,000 km) from the Sun. From these figures, we can calculate that the circumference of the Sun is about 4.4 million kilometers. In comparison, the circumference of the Earth is 40,000 km.

A good example to better grasp this difference is an airplane. A passenger plane typically takes about 40 hours to fly around the Earth. This same plane would therefore take 110 * 40 hours = 4,400 hours to fly around the Sun, which is over 183 days.

The Sun is actually just a small star in the Universe. For instance, consider the giant Betelgeuse, which is 430 light-years away. Betelgeuse is estimated to have a circumference of over 900 million km. The same plane that takes 183 days to circle the Sun would take between 400 and 500 years to circle Betelgeuse.

The largest star ever discovered is VY Canis Majoris. This star is located about 500 light-years away. The circumference of VY Canis Majoris is 2.8 billion km. A plane flying around VY Canis Majoris would take around 1,000 years to complete one orbit.

The image accompanying this article is from NASA