Far out in space, the sun looks like a giant ball of fire. But after 5 billion years of being on, why hasn’t it gone out yet? Even more strange, why does the sun burn in space without oxygen?
Back on Earth, a fire can only burn if there is fuel and oxygen heated to the flash point. The more efficient the mixture of fuel and oxygen, the hotter the fire, as we learned when discussing the color of fire. The problem is, in outer space, there is no oxygen at all.
The surface temperature of the sun is almost equal to the temperature of the hottest fire on earth. How did this happen?
The answer is not the secret fuel, but the simplest element in the universe. The sun is a giant ball of gas that is mostly hydrogen. Deep in the heart of the sun, these hydrogen gases grapple with extremely intense pressures and extremely hot temperatures.
Finally, there is a reaction that is very efficient to produce energy, namely the nuclear fusion reaction. But, wait, what is that creature?
Nuclear fusion occurs when more than one atomic nucleus combines to form a new element with more protons, which in the sun’s case is the element Hydrogen to Helium. But… wait a minute. Shouldn’t like protons repel because they have the same charge?
Here is the unique thing. Due to the super hot core temperature, the hydrogen atoms will be stripped away into a plasma mixture. Finally, protons and electrons can move freely with super-fast movement. Like it or not, these atomic nuclei will eventually collide, especially at light speeds.
From this fusion reaction, the sun loses more than 4 million kilos of mass to emit the energy equivalent of 10 billion hydrogen bombs every second.
To help you imagine that, the most powerful nuclear bomb ever tested was a hydrogen bomb, the power of which even surpassed the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. One bomb is enough to destroy the entire New York. How about 10 billion?
Unfortunately, the amount of hydrogen that the sun has for nuclear fusion is limited. So, someday the sun will go out because it runs out of fuel. Fortunately, there are still about 5 billion years before we have to move galaxies. And as always, thank you.
