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Size
The sun is a yellow dwarf star that has more mass than everything in the solar system put together, including the planets, asteroids and moons. In total, the sun makes up 99.86 percent of the solar system's mass. The sun is 865,000 miles in diameter while the moon is only 2,200 miles in diameter. An astounding 76 million moons could fit inside the sun.
Brightness
The moon does not actually give off any light -- it merely reflects the light of the sun without distributing any light of its own. The sun provides the daytime light for Earth that is vital to the survival of every living organism. Astronomers use a measurement called magnitude to measure the brightness of objects. The full moon is quite bright compared to other planets. It has a magnitude of -12.6, compared to only -3.7 for Venus. The sun's brightness, however, is -26.73, which is 450,000 times brighter than the moon.
Distance
When the moon is farthest from Earth, its apogee, it is at a distance of 405,500 km. At its shortest distance, its perigee, it is 363,300 km away -- an 11 percent difference between the apogee and perigee. By comparison, the sun is 400 times farther away from Earth, at a distance of 149 million km or 93 million miles.
Composition
The sun is composed of hydrogen and helium. The fusion of these two elements at the sun's core generates heat and light. The moon's crust is made up of oxygen, iron, calcium, silicon, magnesium and aluminum. Its core is made up of metallic iron with some sulfur and nickel.