"Carusus" wrote...
in message ...
http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~soper/Sun/mass.html
gives 2x10^30 as the mass of the sun.
Is this correct?

Just be careful, Carusus... don't make the mistake *i* did (and i
caught before posting).

Jonathan's units of measurement are "tons," and Greg's units are
in "kilograms." So the mass of the Sun is...

2 x 10^30 kilograms

which is about equal to...

2 x 10^27 tons

It doesn't change much, other than to reinforce the idea that the
percentage is small.

If one were using the same units, the difference would be a factor
of a thousand (1,000). That might be significant enough to alter
our views about the Sun's age, term of life, death and other qualities.

And it might give us good questions to ponder... If the Sun's mass
were 1,000 times less (or 1,000 times more), then what would its
life expectancy change to? Would it "die" differently? Would it
now be a different color to our eyes? If 1,000 times more mass,
would it then have enough mass to go nova? supernova?

Studying questions like these might give us more precision as to
the ages of other celestial objects we observe.

happy days and...
starry starry nights!

--
Life without love is
A lamp without oil,
Love without prejudice
A world without soil,
Tool without toil.

Paine Ellsworth