The Sun contains 99.86% of all the mass in the solar system
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The total mass of the solar system is dominated entirely by the Sun: it contains 99.86% of all mass, leaving just 0.14% for everything else — all 8 planets, all their moons, the asteroid belt, the Kuiper belt, all comets, and all interplanetary dust. Jupiter, the largest planet, accounts for 71% of the remaining non-Sun mass. Earth is an almost negligible rounding error in the solar system's accounting.
If you removed the Sun and replaced it with one made of styrofoam the same size, the Earth and all the planets would drift away — 99.86% of the gravitational pull holding the solar system together would be gone.
The Science Behind It
The total mass of the solar system is dominated entirely by the Sun: it contains 99.86% of all mass, leaving just 0.14% for everything else — all 8 planets, all their moons, the asteroid belt, the Kuiper belt, all comets, and all interplanetary dust. Jupiter, the largest planet, accounts for 71% of the remaining non-Sun mass. Earth is an almost negligible rounding error in the solar system's accounting.
Why Your Brain Finds This Hard to Believe
OddlyHuman Editorial
VerifiedWritten and fact-checked by the OddlyHuman Behavioral Science Team. We verify all psychological, sociological, and historical claims against peer-reviewed journals, primary sources, and established encyclopedias to bring you accurate insights.
Read our Editorial Guidelines →“The Sun is 99.86% of all the mass in the solar system. Jupiter is most of the rest. Earth is a footnote.”