The Sun

aka the Sun, Great Orb.

Sol is a human name for their home star, derived from Norse mythology and Roman mythology. Sol, the Norse sun-goddess, daughter of Mundilfari, rode every day through the sky in a chariot pulled by the horses Alswid ("all swift") and Aarvak ("early riser"). Sol was also adopted by the Romans, sometimes as 'Sulis', as the equivalent of the Greek god Helios. This religion gave rise to the Sol Invictus sect, which included the Emperor Constantine amonsgt its devotees.

Sol is an ordinary G2 star (a G type star being a star absorbing strong metallic lines in its spectrum) one of more than 100 billion stars in Mutter's Spiral.


 * diameter:   1,390,000 km.
 * mass:       1.989e30 kg
 * temperature: 5800 K (surface)
 * 15,600,000 K (core)

Sol is by far the largest object in the solar system. It contains more than 99.8% of the total mass of the System (Jupiter contains most of the rest). See Nine Planets for more info.

Doctor Who story notes
The deity worshipped by the tribal early humans in An Unearthly Child, referred to as 'Orb' may well be the Sun, or Sol. The next significant intervention of Sol in a Dr Who story must be in The Aztecs, when the timing of a solar eclipse is crucial to the events unfolding in ancient Mexico.

In The Seeds of Death the Ice Warrior fleet is deceived into setting an irrevocable course towards the Sun.

At some point in the far future, solar flares ravage the Earth's surface such that it's inhabitants construct The Ark in Space. The Solar activity eventually subsides. Sol, along with the re-populated Earth, is eventually moved two light years by the Time Lords, causing a 'devastating fireball' which may have originated from Sol herself.

In The Ark the Earth is seen to be destroyed by the expanding star, an event also portrayed in The End Of The World.