how does the sun burn in outter space if the is no oxygen to sustain combustion?

Answer 1

first, you need to know that the sun is not burning. all stars produce energy in their centers by fusing atomic nuclei together. stars form with a wide range of masses, from about 0.08 solar masses to about 100 or 120 solar masses. the least massive stars never are the coolest and reddest and never fuse anything anything other than hydrogen into helium. the sun is fusing hydrogen into helium right now, but as the helium concentration increases in the center of the sun, the core will begin to shrink. this will happen in about 5 400 000 000 (5.4 billion) years. as the core shrinks it will become denser and hotter. when the core becomes hot enough, the sun will begin fusing helium nuclei into carbon nuclei.

look here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_evolution

Answer 2

The sun is not 'burning' in the way you describe. Combustion is a chemical process that depends on oxygen. The sun 'burns' hydrogen in a nuclear process called fusion.

Fusion occurs when two Hydrogen atoms under tremendous pressure combine into a single Helium atom. The resulting Helium atom has less mass than the original Hydrogen atoms. The difference is converted to energy according to Einstein's equation E = MC2, where the energy produced is equal to the difference in mass times the speed of light squared.

The process is the opposite of nuclear fission, the splitting of an atom. This we see in nuclear power plants and atomic bombs. In both cases energy is produced and oxygen is not required.

Answer 3

The sun, like all stars, are formed by gravitational attraction of matter especially hydrogen atoms and hydrogen molecules which make up most of the matter in the stars as well as most of the matter in the space between the stars. The force of gravity is part of the source of the sun's energy.

But there is another source of energy called *nuclear energy* which is stored inside the nuclei of atoms. When more and more hydrogen atoms and/or molecules are forced by gravity into increasingly very small spaces, the density of H atoms reaches the point where the temperature/enegy of the H atoms and molecules(ie particles) are high enough that their nuclei begin fusing together during collisions to form Helium atoms releasing tremendous amounts of energy in the form of heat and radiations over a wide range of frequencies. This is the source of most of the energy the sun emits. The more massive the star the brighter it burns/radiates.

The releasing of energy from the fusion processes taking place in and near the center of the sun is informally described as "hydrogen burning" based on the incorrect analogy that it is like the process of releasing energy from "oxygen burning" or "the combustion of oxygen." But the latter are chemical reactions which involve changes in the electronic structures of the atoms especially changes in the links called *chemical bonds* between the reacting atoms and molecules while the former are nuclear reactions involving changes in the structure and composition of the reacting nuclei.

The energy produced by hydrogen burning or more accurately, hydrogen fusion is based on Einsteins mass-energy transformation equation E= Mc^2 which involves energy releases hundreds of millions times greater than the energies involved in chemical reactions.
I know this is more knowledge than you asked for, but if you learn more than you wanted, you will know what you wanted to know for sure. TWH 08162006

Answer 4

What is burned is the Hydrogen in the suns core. It is smashed together under the surrounding weight. It fuses to become Helium. A little of the original mass becomes light or radiated energy. If you take the mass of the original Hydrogen you find that it is a little more heavy than the resulting Helium. That difference in between masses is what becomes the released energy that causes the sun to shine.

This is called thermonuclear fusion. E=mc Squared.

Answer 5

It is not like fire here on Earth, which uses oxygen to burn. It is a completely different kind of energy-reaction. Namely, it is a "fusion reaction," where two atoms "fuse" to make a single new atom, and as a result of this action huge amounts of energy are released. This keeps happening in the sun (and all stars), mostly turning two hydrogen atoms into a single helium. Eventually the hydrogen is used up, and heliums combine to make a heavier atom. Energy always results from these. This phenomenon is what is used in a nuclear bomb, to get such a big explosive kick from a relatively tiny bomb. Nuclear bombs use the tricks of stars to be so deadly.

Answer 6

The energy emitted by our sun is produced by nuclear fusion reactions that happen firstly in its core. There, the pressure exerted on the hydrogen atoms (or heavier atoms that have already been created by previous nuclear fusion reactions) created by their own gravity along with the force of the enormously large amount of the outer atoms of the sun causes their nuclei to chemically fuse--creating heavier atoms (helium being the second most abundant). This reaction (which deals with what's called the "Strong Nuclear Force"--the force that holds protons and neutrons together in atoms) expells an exponentially large amount of energy in the form electromagnetic radiation (light and heat are the largest of the spectrum that we can detect almost immdiately on Earth).

There are no combustion reactions in space unless glucose and oxygen (with a heat catalyst) are CHEMICALLY (NOT nuclearly) transformed to carbon dioxide and water. This happens every time we respirate, in fact. (We exhale CO2 and water--just breathe in your hands for a moment, and they'll become damp).

Hope this helps answer your question...

Answer 7

Because the sun does not combust, the mechanism responsible for stellar 'burning' is actually nuclear fusion. Various atoms (mostly hydrogen) are compressed together to form heavier atoms, this produces a net positive energy which is released in the form of photons.

Answer 8

The Sun uses hydrogen fusion, not oxidation, so no oxygen is needed, obviously. The presence of oxygen would mess up things. That will happen eventually as heavier elements accumulate in the Sun. It will expand and cool, becoming a red giant that is likely to swallow the inner planets: Mercury, Venus and Earth.

Answer 9

I've never thought about it, like that. It's a helium, Hydrogen reaction, and it works on stealing atoms, not truly combusting. Just like a nuclear reaction, it requires no oxygen to exist......You think too much.

Answer 10

All the fire we know about is about burning carbon based materials. Metals and stone melt and vaporise, but gasoline, wood, coal, people, madeira cakes all burn with a flame because they are carbon based.

It's just another example of not being able to relate Earthly processes to space. there are no carbs out there, folks.

Nuclear bombs do not burn in themselves, except that the high temperature radiation they produce sets fire to things that do burn.

The sun and stars are huge nuclear processes.