I have a question...How does the sun

[shraby]

have fire? Is it fire? Fire can't burn without oxygen and there isn't oxygen in space, is there?

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Is this some sort of copycat thread? (n/t)

[mikelewis]

2. My understanding is that it is some sort of nuclear reaction

and that the light and heat are a by-product of this reaction.

Here's an article about it.
http://www.solarviews.com/eng/sun.htm
The Sun is the most prominent feature in our solar system. It is the largest object and contains approximately 98% of the total solar system mass. One hundred and nine Earths would be required to fit across the Sun's disk, and its interior could hold over 1.3 million Earths. The Sun's outer visible layer is called the photosphere and has a temperature of 6,000°C (11,000°F). This layer has a mottled appearance due to the turbulent eruptions of energy at the surface.
Solar energy is created deep within the core of the Sun. It is here that the temperature (15,000,000° C; 27,000,000° F) and pressure (340 billion times Earth's air pressure at sea level) is so intense that nuclear reactions take place. This reaction causes four protons or hydrogen nuclei to fuse together to form one alpha particle or helium nucleus. The alpha particle is about .7 percent less massive than the four protons. The difference in mass is expelled as energy and is carried to the surface of the Sun, through a process known as convection, where it is released as light and heat. Energy generated in the Sun's core takes a million years to reach its surface. Every second 700 million tons of hydrogen are converted into helium ashes. In the process 5 million tons of pure energy is released; therefore, as time goes on the Sun is becoming lighter.



The chromosphere is above the photosphere. Solar energy passes through this region on its way out from the center of the Sun. Faculae and flares arise in the chromosphere. Faculae are bright luminous hydrogen clouds which form above regions where sunspots are about to form. Flares are bright filaments of hot gas emerging from sunspot regions. Sunspots are dark depressions on the photosphere with a typical temperature of 4,000°C (7,000°F).

The corona is the outer part of the Sun's atmosphere. It is in this region that prominences appears. Prominences are immense clouds of glowing gas that erupt from the upper chromosphere. The outer region of the corona stretches far into space and consists of particles traveling slowly away from the Sun. The corona can only be seen during total solar eclipses. (See Solar Eclipse Image).

The Sun appears to have been active for 4.6 billion years and has enough fuel to go on for another five billion years or so. At the end of its life, the Sun will start to fuse helium into heavier elements and begin to swell up, ultimately growing so large that it will swallow the Earth. After a billion years as a red giant, it will suddenly collapse into a white dwarf -- the final end product of a star like ours. It may take a trillion years to cool off completely.

[seriousstan]

3. The sun isn't on fire.

It is a fusion reaction.

[sw04ca]

4. It's not fire....

it's a sustained thermonuclear burn. Combustion is a chemical reaction, the sun is powered by a nuclear reaction. It gives off heat and light radiation just as fire do, mind you, but it also gives off other kinds of radiation, virtually every kind out there.

[theboss]

5. It's not fire; it's energy

The process is fusion.

[slutticus]

6. It's not fire.

It's gas in a plasma state.

You can read more about plasma here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_physics

[ElsewheresDaughter]

7. lol good question...it made my 13 yr old daughters eyes lite up got the..

gears spinning! i know what she'll be asking her science teacher in class tomorrow... thanks

[mikelewis]

8. Are we doing your homework for you?

[Swamp Rat]

10. HAHA! You beat me to it!

:D

[HEyHEY]

9. uh...god did it

[mikelewis]

11. Yes he did! A beautiful job too... Thanks God

I know there is science but I believe it was created by a higher being using laws and reason. I don't believe in the creation theory but I do believe in the inspiration theory.

[shraby]

13. No one is doing my homework..I'm 62

I thought it was a gaseous thing, but remember photos of the sun with the flares, it looks like fire. Thank you all for coming through with answers. You verified what I thought but wasn't sure about. Knew I could count in du'ers to have the answers for me. :hi:

[Cuban_Liberal]

12. "The Sun"

"The sun is mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace,
where hydrogen is built into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees.
The sun is hot, the sun is not a place where we could live.
But here on earth there'd be no life without the light it gives.

We need its light.
We need its heat.
The sunlight that we see.
The sunlight comes from our own sun's atomic energy.

The sun is mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace.
Where hydrogen is built into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees.

The sun is hot.


The sun is large.


The sun is far away.

But even when its out of sight, the sun shines night and day.

We need its heat.
We need its light.
The sunlight that we see.
The sunlight comes from our own star's atomic energy.



The sun is mass of incandescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace.
Where hydrogen is built into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees.


Thats all ladies and gentlemen."

'The Sun'@ by They Might Be Giants

:D

[Stop_the_War]

14. That's a real song? LOL

[Cuban_Liberal]

15. Yes, it is.

Brother Thomas in 7th grade Earth Science played it to teach us about the sun's composition.

:P

[theboss]

16. Treeeeeemendous song

God, I love them.

[hunter]

17. I'm going to be the worst sort of name dropper here...

I was invited to dinner with Hans Bethe once. He's the guy who first figured out exactly how the sun works. People knew it was some sort of fusion reaction, but they couldn't get the accounting right.

Here's from http://www.britannica.com/nobel/micro/66_66.html

In 1939 Bethe calculated the Sun's energy production, which results from the fusion of four hydrogen atoms (each of mass 1.008) into one helium atom (mass 4.0039). No direct fusion is possible, but Bethe showed that the probabilities of the four steps of the "carbon cycle" can account for the energy output. A carbon isotope of mass 12 reacts successively with three hydrogen nuclei (protons) to form the nitrogen isotope of mass 15; energy is produced through the fusion of a fourth hydrogen nucleus to release a helium nucleus (alpha particle) and the original carbon isotope.

[Jacobin]

19. That's just a THEORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gawd made it on uhm, I think the second day?...and and and, you scientists are just a bunch of commie, homo lovin' terraists, and and

[Inland]

18. Well, let's see what the Bible says....

Says to shut up and stop watching porn on your computer.