Solar mass

Solar mass
The Sun contains 99.86% of the mass of the Solar System. Bodies less massive than Saturn are not visible at this scale.
General information
Unit systemastronomy
Unit ofmass
SymbolM☉
In SI base units1.988416×1030 kg[1]

The solar mass (M☉) is a standard unit of mass in astronomy, equal to approximately 2×1030 kg. It is approximately equal to the mass of the Sun. It is often used to indicate the masses of other stars, as well as stellar clusters, nebulae, galaxies and black holes. More precisely, the mass of the Sun is

nominal solar mass M☉ = 1.988416×1030 kg or a best estimate of M☉ = (1.988475±0.000092)×1030 kg.[2]

The solar mass is about 333000 times the mass of Earth (ME), or 1047 times the mass of Jupiter (MJ).

  1. ^ Prša, Andrej; Harmanec, Petr; Torres, Guillermo; Mamajek, Eric; Asplund, Martin; Capitaine, Nicole; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jørgen; Depagne, Éric; Haberreiter, Margit; Hekker, Saskia; Hilton, James; Kopp, Greg; Kostov, Veselin; Kurtz, Donald W.; Laskar, Jacques (2016-08-01). "NOMINAL VALUES FOR SELECTED SOLAR AND PLANETARY QUANTITIES: IAU 2015 RESOLUTION B3 * †". The Astronomical Journal. 152 (2): 41. arXiv:1605.09788. Bibcode:2016AJ....152...41P. doi:10.3847/0004-6256/152/2/41. ISSN 0004-6256.
  2. ^ Prša, Andrej; Harmanec, Petr; Torres, Guillermo; Mamajek, Eric; Asplund, Martin; Capitaine, Nicole; Christensen-Dalsgaard, Jørgen; Depagne, Éric; Haberreiter, Margit; Hekker, Saskia; Hilton, James; Kopp, Greg; Kostov, Veselin; Kurtz, Donald W.; Laskar, Jacques (2016-08-01). "NOMINAL VALUES FOR SELECTED SOLAR AND PLANETARY QUANTITIES: IAU 2015 RESOLUTION B3 * †". The Astronomical Journal. 152 (2): 41. arXiv:1605.09788. Bibcode:2016AJ....152...41P. doi:10.3847/0004-6256/152/2/41. ISSN 0004-6256.