Yes, the Sun is a big ball of fire, but quite a different kind of fire from a match, fireplace, or bonfire. Instead, it is a nuclear furnace, in which four hydrogen atoms are fused into one helium atom, leading to temperatures in the Sun’s outer layers that are roughly two to four million degrees. The surface is about 10,000°F. Over 600 million tons of hydrogen are converted into helium every second. The missing four million tons of mass are converted into pure. energy in the form of heat and the motion of atoms, according to Einstein’s famous equation, E = mc2.
The Sun, ultimate source of all life and energy here on Earth, is nearly a million miles across and is about 333,000 times the mass of the Earth. If we could stand on the Sun, we would weigh about twenty-eight times what we weigh here on Earth. The Sun is a Class G, or yellow, star and is about halfway through its stable part of its life. Scientists who have analysed the Sun’s light have found about sixty elements present. The Sun is not a solid body like, say, a billiard ball. It is more like a fluid, and all parts or areas of the Sun do not rotate together. The equator takes twenty-five days to rotate once, but the polar regions need more than thirty days to rotate. The Sun is in a state of equilibrium, remaining the same size by a balance of two forces. Radiation, in which streams of protons are trying to push the gases outward, tries to make the Sun bigger. Opposing this force is the Sun’s tremendous gravity, which is trying to make the Sun smaller. Overall, the inward force of gravity is balanced by the outward force of gas and radiation pressure.
If fire needs oxygen to burn, how can the Sun burn in space, where there’s no oxygen?
Answers
Sanjeev saha
Yes, the Sun is a big ball of fire, but quite a different kind of fire from a match, fireplace, or bonfire. Instead, it is a nuclear furnace, in which four hydrogen atoms are fused into one helium atom, leading to temperatures in the Sun’s outer layers that are roughly two to four million degrees. The surface is about 10,000°F. Over 600 million tons of hydrogen are converted into helium every second. The missing four million tons of mass are converted into pure. energy in the form of heat and the motion of atoms, according to Einstein’s famous equation, E = mc2.
The Sun, ultimate source of all life and energy here on Earth, is nearly a million miles across and is about 333,000 times the mass of the Earth. If we could stand on the Sun, we would weigh about twenty-eight times what we weigh here on Earth. The Sun is a Class G, or yellow, star and is about halfway through its stable part of its life. Scientists who have analysed the Sun’s light have found about sixty elements present. The Sun is not a solid body like, say, a billiard ball. It is more like a fluid, and all parts or areas of the Sun do not rotate together. The equator takes twenty-five days to rotate once, but the polar regions need more than thirty days to rotate.
The Sun is in a state of equilibrium, remaining the same size by a balance of two forces. Radiation, in which streams of protons are trying to push the gases outward, tries to make the Sun bigger. Opposing this force is the Sun’s tremendous gravity, which is trying to make the Sun smaller. Overall, the inward force of gravity is balanced by the outward force of gas and radiation pressure.