Fusion In The Sun. A Sneaky Suspicion?What I Am Getting at?

Question

Ref To My earlier question On The subject. I suspect The sun is also collapsing a Certain Unit Of Space at the Centre Corresp to the Reduction in mass. So according To Me The Sun's Output Is Somewhat Greater Than The Output Obtained from Fusion Alone. But I Have No Calculations To support This Seemingly Outlandish suspicion. All Your Answers R Welcome. Thanks in advance

Answer 1

U DONT HAVE TO SUSPECT..its already proved that In approximately 5
billion years, when the hydrogen in the Sun's core is mostly
exhausted, the core will collapse---and, consequently, its temperature
will rise---until the Sun begins fusion helium into carbon. Because
the helium fuel source will release more energy than hydrogen, the
Sun's outer layers will swell, as well as leaking away some of its
outer atmosphere to space. When the conversion to the new fuel source
is complete, the Sun will be slightly decreased in mass, as well as
extending out to the current orbit of Earth or Mars (both of which
will then be somewhat further out due to the Sun's slightly decreased
mass). Since the Sun's fuel source will not have increased in
proportion to its size, the blackbody power law indicates that the
surface of the Sun will be cooler than it is now, and will become a
cool, deep red. The Sun will have become a red giant. http://www.faqs.org/faqs/astronomy/faq/part5/section-7.html

suns output is 9.15 ×10^10 megatons of TNT per second http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Structure_of_the_Sun

NO..sun is getting energy from fusion..AND HOW CAN U THINK THAT OUTPUT IS MORE THAN THE PRODUSED

Answer 2

If it were a binary system, the loss of mass (decrease in size/luminosity) could be explained by the Roche Lobe principle. Since there is not a large enough body in our system, I would have to conjecture that the sun's size would decay due to the compactness of the fusion reaction (4 Hydrogens into one Helium). Granted a Helium atom is larger than a Hydrogen, the Helium would gravitate towards the core, thus being compressed more that 4 Hyrdrogen atoms... Also, during fusion, some sub-atomic particles (accounting for the total mass of the 4 Hydrogen atoms are destroyed.) I could be wrong, but I think that's the general gist of it.... Any corrections?

Answer 3

In regard to your earlier question, the sun is not hot enough to fuse helium. So it only fuses hydrogen isotopes at present.

The energy released by fusion is actually realted to the binding energy of the nuclei involved. The first link below gives binding energies for all nuclei - you can see that for smaller elements it rises very rapidly with the size of the nucleus. This means that fusing smaller nuclei produces more tightly bound larger nuclei, and the surplus energy is realeased. This loss of binding energy equates to a tiny reduction in nuclear mass (it is the other way round in reality from some of your earlier answers).

For larger atoms the binding energy reduces with size, so these elements have to be forced into existence - they are made in supernovae. These nuclei release energy when they fall apart by fission.

When the sun runs out of hydrogen the photon pressure in its core will fall and will no longer protect it from gravitational collapse. It will then continue to collapse under its own weight, the gravitational collapse further heating the core. Once the core reaches around 10^8 K it will start to fuse helium.

The output of the sun is clearly a balance. If it were producing more energy than it were losing, the core would heat, photon pressure would rise and it would expand. The fact it is not expanding is proof enough that your outlandish theory is wrong.

Answer 4

The sun's mass is no-doubt reducing. Both as a result of fusion but also as a result of environmental factors like flairs and wind. The current reduction in mass are reflective of these processes.

If you mean collapsing, as in changing the nature of space.
- First it wouldn't matter. This wouldn't affect the mass of the sun.
- Second, the sun is pretty small, what would be the cause of this spacial behavior? You've got no evidence of this, so without a hypothesis it is a moot question.

Answer 5

You may be right; some of the Sun's energy may be coming from gravitational collapse. Before scientists understood nuclear fusion, they proposed that all the Sun's energy came from gravitational collapse, but that turned out not to supply enough energy for long enough to explain how the Sun could continue to shine for as long as it has. Now we know that the Sun's energy comes from fusion reactions, but some very small amount may come from gravitational collapse in the core.

Answer 6

I dont know exact calculations, but a fusion reaction has the potential for immense output.

Answer 7

WTF are you talking about? In any case...you are wrong.

If anything, it puts out less energy.