Sun's Mass Loss: 4 Billion kg/sec from Sunlight & Ejected Particles

[syfry]

TL;DR Summary

How much mass per second does the sun lose with all the sunlight it emits and all the particles it ejects?

Found out the sun loses 4 billion kg per second worth of sunlight in e = mc².

How much mass does the sun lose per second if we include all particles that the sun ejects such as ions and neutrinos? (and, neutrons?)

 

[Drakkith]

Per wiki, the Sun loses about 1.3-1.9 million tons per second due to the solar wind. Or about 1.3-1.9 billion kg per second. So sunlight plus solar wind gives about 5.3-5.9 billion kg of mass loss per second. Quite a bit, but miniscule on the scale of the Sun. Since the formation of the Sun, this equates to perhaps 0.05% of its initial mass.

 

[syfry]

Per wiki, the Sun loses about 1.3-1.9 million tons per second due to the solar wind. Or about 1.3-1.9 billion kg per second. So sunlight plus solar wind gives about 5.3-5.9 billion kg of mass loss per second. Quite a bit, but miniscule on the scale of the Sun. Since the formation of the Sun, this equates to perhaps 0.05% of its initial mass.

Does solar wind include the coronal mass ejections?

Also there's still the neutrinos to account for.

Wasn't expecting sunlight to outweigh the particles lost! So maybe the mass lost from ejected particles is even greater if the neutrinos add sufficiently, and, after including mass ejections (if solar wind is only part of the total).

 

[malawi_glenn]

Photons are particles.

 

[256bits]

Per wiki, the Sun loses about 1.3-1.9 million tons per second due to the solar wind. Or about 1.3-1.9 billion kg per second. So sunlight plus solar wind gives about 5.3-5.9 billion kg of mass loss per second. Quite a bit, but miniscule on the scale of the Sun. Since the formation of the Sun, this equates to perhaps 0.05% of its initial mass.

Interesting.
Which is on the order of the mass of the moon, give or take, since the sun's formation.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Does solar wind include the coronal mass ejections?

Also there's still the neutrinos to account for.

I'm sorry, I think you made a typo. I think you meant "Thank you for looking those numbers up for me."

Do you have a larger point? That can be discussed.

 

[syfry]

I'm sorry, I think you made a typo. I think you meant "Thank you for looking those numbers up for me."

Do you have a larger point? That can be discussed.

You're right about showing thanks, as I often do. (and was first to like their reply)

Also feel fine about my follow up. By the way, thanks @Drakkith, if it wasn't obvious. I often am tired from physical labor and driving hundreds of kilometers to jobs even after pulling over to sleep in the car so I'm often sleep deprived and might forget to mention it, but please know that I do appreciate your effort. Last night I awoke in the middle of he night as usual and got to wondering things about the science of how our universe works (also, as usual), then found a PBS video that said the amount of sunlight in a year, and hadn't ever found online a grand total of all mass that the sun loses to all the things we hear about: trillions of neutrinos through our bodies per second, the mass ejections the sun unleashes (are those ejections in all directions from the sphere, or only into the plane of planets, and, if they're only from a single spot, then do we include the mass ejections that happen at the other side of the sun away from us?), etc. But do we subtract all of the mass that collides with the sun from asteroids to comet debris and would add to its mass? (or would the solar wind be so strong near the sun that such objects cannot enter it?)

Most of us here probably have jobs too and are short on time (and some of us are building a business with what little bit of free time we've got!), so good thing for the vigilance of people about the basics of proper thanking.

I thought in our quest and curiosity for scientific knowledge, we're all in it together!

Why else would people bother to answer any questions that complete strangers ask on the internet?

 

[FactChecker]

I'm sorry, I think you made a typo. I think you meant "Thank you for looking those numbers up for me."

Do you have a larger point? That can be discussed.

He did "like" the post and I thought that his question was a natural continuation of the discussion.

 

[Drakkith]

Does solar wind include the coronal mass ejections?

No idea. I don't know how it was calculated. I'd be curious about what it does and doesn't include, and how the solar wind changes over time.