Without the Sun we wouldn’t be here. It is the source of our heat, light and energy. It is enormous, bigger than we could imagine; yet it’s very small compared to other suns in the universe. It’s unbelievable to think how much the sun burns. It’s just a giant ball of exploding gas. One day it will die out because all the gas will be gone. But for today and perhaps the next 15 billion years, there’s enough gas to light and heat our part of the solar system. Scientists have been studying the sun for decades but know little about it. The problem is that few space probes can get too close to it. The sun fries anything and everything to a cinder, in an instant. The Sun is important to us, but it’s important we don’t spend too long in it.