Basically, it has atoms of gases bumping into each other, generating other gases and releasing energy in the form of light and heat. A brutal heat, which in the center of the Sun reaches 15 million degrees Celsius! This furnace is fed by so-called nuclear reactions, which transform hydrogen into helium. Incidentally, hydrogen is by far the main component of the Sun, accounting for 92.1% of its mass. Next comes helium, with 7.8% of the solar mass. As this reaction also produces energy, it can be said that the Sun is, in fact, burning – and should continue to do so for 5 billion years. When the hydrogen runs out, the Sun’s core will fuse helium with heavier metals in the core. This process will transform it into a red giant star, which will engulf the solar system. Then the Sun will collapse and become a white dwarf, cooling completely after 1 trillion years.
Hot plate
1. Heat and sunlight are produced by thousands of nuclear reactions that take place every second in the center of the Sun. In these reactions, four hydrogen atoms fuse to form helium. The mass of helium is about 70% of the mass of the four hydrogens. The other 30% is released in the form of light and heat.
2. All this energy resulting from nuclear reactions starts to travel towards the surface of the Sun. This path to the solar edge lasts about 1 million years. It is not easy for this energy to overcome a pressure 340 billion times greater than that of Earth.
3. When the light reaches the surface, the light rays encounter only the vacuum of space (that is, the absence of atmospheric pressure). In just eight minutes, light travels 150 million kilometers and reaches our planet
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TOTAL MASS
2 x 1030 kg (2 nonillion kilograms) = 98% of the solar system 332 thousand Earths
BURNING HYDROGEN PER HOUR
700 million tons = 4.6 million blue whales (largest animal in the world)
ENERGY PRODUCED PER HOUR
13 x 1021 kWh (13 sextillion kilowatt-hours) = 1 sextillion Itaipu hydroelectric plants (largest plant in the world)