Solar System / Scale

Everything In The Solar System Is Just 0.2% — The Rest Is All Sun

2026-07-06
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Every planet ever discovered barely adds up to a rounding error.

Every planet ever discovered barely adds up to a rounding error. The Sun holds about 99.8% of all the mass in the solar system. Everything else — all eight planets, every moon, every asteroid, every comet ever catalogued — shares the remaining 0.2%. Combined. That's not a gap, that's an erasure. To put a number on it: around 1.3 million Earths could fit inside the Sun by volume. And whilst you're sitting with that, it's burning through roughly 600 million tonnes of hydrogen every single second, converting it to helium. That sustained burn is what holds every orbit in the solar system in place — including ours. We don't circle the Sun so much as cling to it. Follow Deep Field Vault for more of the universe, one staggering fact at a time.

THE SUN'S SHARE

  • 99.8% of all
  • solar system mass

EVERYTHING ELSE

  • All planets, moons,
  • asteroids & comets
  • = 0.2%. Combined.

SCALE CHECK

  • ~1.3 million Earths
  • fit inside the Sun

BURNING RIGHT NOW

  • ~600 million tonnes
  • of hydrogen
  • fused every second

WHY WE ORBIT

  • That fusion
  • keeps every planet
  • locked in place
Imagery: NASA (public domain) · View original on NASA ↗
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