16. Exactly how big around is the Sun? Is it exactly round? (A K2S Question)

From The Space Library

The Sun is about 872,000 miles across. About 109 Earths could fit across the diameter of the Sun. Because the Sun is a ball of gas, it is slightly distorted and rotates faster at the center than at the poles. This makes it slightly oblate at the equator but for practical purposes in normal discussions, you can consider the Sun to be round. Once again, gravity is the key to keeping large objects with plenty of mass in the most compact shape possible—round.

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Answer provided by Jim Zebrowski

Question and Answer extracted from the book Kids to Space - by Lonnie Schorer

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