solar mass

Also known as M☉, mass of the Sun

standard unit of mass in astronomy which is equal to 1.98892 × 10³⁰ kg

AI overview

A solar mass is the standard unit astronomers use to measure the weight of stars and other massive objects in space, equal to about 2 × 10³⁰ kilograms—roughly the mass of our Sun. It matters because using this single reference point makes it much easier for scientists to compare the sizes of different stars, black holes, and galaxies without having to work with unwieldy numbers.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Wikidata facts

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unit symbol: M☉
Wikidata SPARQL query equivalent: wd:Q180892 p:P2370/psn:P2370 [wikibase:quantityAmount ?source; wikibase:quantityUnit ?base]. ?item p:P2370/psn:P2370 [wikibase:quantityAmount ?target; wikibase:quantityUnit ?base]. BIND(?source / ?target as ?value)
conversion to SI unit: 1988400000000000000000000000000

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Article

The solar mass (M☉) is a frequently used unit of mass in astronomy, equal to approximately 2×10 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 as follows: nominal solar mass M☉ = 1.988416×10 kg or a best estimate of M☉ = (1.988475±0.000092)×10 kg.

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