Is the Sun a Star?

A question I surprisingly get quite often is whether or not the Sun is a star.  To be blunt, yes, the Sun is a star.  The Sun looks different than the other stars you see in the night sky, but that's only because it is closer. The other stars would look just as bright or brighter than the Sun if they were closer to Earth.

So what is a star?  A star is a giant ball of gas (mostly hydrogen), held together by gravity, that is fusing hydrogen into helium to produce energy.  That energy is what we receive from the Sun that works to warm the surface.  

To conclude, the Sun is a star.  It is much different than Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, which are all planets.  Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are all gas planets that are  composed mostly of hydrogen, but the main difference between them and the Sun is that they are not hot enough to fuse hydrogen into helium.