A lightning bolt is about five times hotter than the surface of the Sun.
Why it is true
The temperature of a lightning bolt can reach 30,000 kelvin, while the Sun's surface is around 5,500 kelvin. The heat lasts only fractions of a second, but it is enough to melt sand and turn it into glass. That is why a lightning bolt is five times hotter than the solar surface.
Source: NOAA
Would you rather be asked first?
This is the reading side of the site, so the answer is in the sentence above — that is the whole point of it. Test yourself works the other way round: the question comes on its own, and the fact and the explanation only appear once you have answered.
Related facts
Human DNA is so long it could go to the Sun and back hundreds of times.
The Earth's inner core is as hot as the surface of the Sun.
Helium was discovered in the Sun in 1868, almost 30 years before it was found on Earth.
Water can boil and freeze at the same time under specific conditions.


