Six ten-billionths of the Sun is gold.

Six ten-billionths of the Sun is gold.

You bet there is. Careful analysis of the Sun’s spectrum shows that about 6 ten-billionths (0.0000000006) of the mass of the Sun consists of atoms of gold. Doesn’t sound like much does it? But, because the Sun is so huge, this is a lot of gold!

The Sun’s mass is 2.0 x 1030 kg – that’s 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 kg. But if 6 ten-billionths of the Sun’s atoms are gold that gives a mass of 1.2 x 1021 kg (1,200,000,000,000,000,000,000 kgs). That’s a heap of gold! In fact, it’s about the same mass as one of the largest asteroids like Ceres – and Ceres is 913 kilometers in diameter.

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