Let's talk about the hottest, brightest thing in the galaxy right now. No, not Jennifer Lawrence's nudey pics, or those prancing hair muppets One Direction, I'm talking about the big fiery ball in the sky, the sun.
Did you know its mass is a whopping 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 tonnes (that's 27 zeroes, if you're counting) and it's about 110 times wider and 333,000 times heavier than Earth. I'm not sure how we know this exactly but some bright spark has obviously worked it out, probably with an app. The sun also rotates at a rather zippy 7,189km/h and sits only 150 million kilometres from Earth, a mere pop to the shops for space explorer Buck Rogers. It's also very, very hot. Just ask Icarus.
If these facts leave you hungry for further illumination then tune into The Secret Life of the Sun (TVB Pearl; Wednesday at 9.30pm), which follows a team of world-class experts and scientists as they study our local star. Presented by Kate Humble and physicist Helen Czerski (last seen globetrotting together on Orbit: Earth's Extraordinary Journey), the hour-long infotainmentary uses the latest satellite imagery to provide a unique picture of the gigantic blazing sphere.
Beginning the exploration at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Britain's answer to Nasa, and one of the world's most important centres for solar research, Humble then jets off to Cairns, in Australia, to join an astronomer in photographing the sun's corona.
With a tear in her eye as she experiences her first total solar eclipse, Humble's obvious enthusiasm is infectious: "It's terrifying, like someone's stealing the sun!" she squeals. Then it's on to Lapland, for more revelatory excitement as particles from the solar wind break through the Earth's thin magnetic field and light up the Finnish night sky with the mesmerising aurora borealis.
The Secret Life of the Sun certainly succeeds in demonstrating the extraordinary power of this blazing star and, thanks to Humble, Czerski and the show's stunning photography, the next time you see a sunrise perhaps you'll appreciate it that bit more.