Final answer:
The statement is false; the Sun loses a minute fraction of its mass to the solar wind each year, not a few percent. It is estimated that the solar wind causes a mass loss of about 1-2 million tons per second.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that the Sun loses a few percent of its mass each year to the solar wind is false. Despite the solar wind being comprised of charged particles like protons and electrons that stream away from the Sun at high speeds, the Sun's loss of mass to the solar wind is relatively insignificant in comparison to its total mass.
Astronomers have estimated that the Sun loses about 1-2 million tons of material each second due to the solar wind. When calculated over the course of a year, this amount contributes only a minuscule fraction to the total mass of the Sun, which is approximately 2.0 × 10³⁰ kg.
Particularly, the Sun loses about 4 × 10⁹ kg of mass every second through energy conversion, which correlates with the mass-energy equivalence principle from special relativity, stating that mass can be converted into energy and vice versa. Over a year, this equates to a loss of mass due to energy release of approximately 4 million tons per second, leading to a yearly reduction in mass which is far less than a percent.