Our nearest star

93,000,000 miles away, it takes light 8 minutes to come from it. So if its stopped shining we won't know for another 8 mins. Its 6000 deg on the surface, and about 15 million in the centre.

Its about half way through its life, it has another 5 billion years in the tank, and then it will go a little freaky. We'd best be gone by then, or it will be curtains.

Its a bit weird when you look at it in detail. Did you know the equatorial part spins faster than the poles, so it sort of winds itself up. If you look closely - and don't try this at home - the surface is bubbling in little cells. Sometimes bigger things develop, sunspots, solar flares, and coronal mass ejections (CME) where huge amounts of stuff (about a billion tons) come flying out into space - again best if you are not in direct line of that.