Why does hydrogen in sun not burn out?

Answer 1

It does burn out. The process whereby the sun burns hydrogen is called fusion. The sun burns so hot it fuses hydrogen atoms into Helium atoms. Since helium burn hotter than hydrogen, in about 5 billion years, the sun's hydrogen will be all used up. It will burn helium and turn into a red giant. When this happens the sun will grow so large and so hot, all of the inner planets (including earth) will be totally incinerated.

Answer 2

this is a broad explanation so listen carefully. This answer relates back to the formation of the sun so read it like a story.

The gases in the universe mainly consisting of hydrogen attracted each other by their own gravitational force. After mixing up they still began attracting each other and their volume started decreasing. Oh yes, the hydrogen did not burn because it could not fill the 3 requirements of combustion ,ie fue (OK), ignition temperature(not there) some gas to help combustion(like oxygen which is absent in space.) Now, the volume was decreasing, hence the pressure increased. Then it became so much thet 2 hydrogen molecules fused together to form a helium molecule. The reaction produced so much energy that all the molecules started fusing to form helium.

Hence the sun does not burn. The gases in it just fuse to give energy by nuclear reactions as described (fusion reaction). One day all the hydrogen will fuse and only helium will be left. Then the sun will have no energy but fear not as we or our great great great greatgreat greatgreat greatgreat greatgreat greatgreat greatgreat greatgreat greatgreat great grandchildren will not be alive to witness it beacause the number of hydrogen molecules there is very high.

psst. this gives rise to another question regarding the black spot on the sun. Research on it

Answer 3

It will in about 5 billion years. It doesn't actually "burn out." Hydrogen is converted to helium through nuclear fusion. If the sun were larger, that helium "ash" would also ignite and fuse into heavier metals.

The reason it takes so long is that there is so much hydrogen to fuse. Every second, the sun converts 500 million metric tons of hydrogen to helium. That should give you an idea of how much hydrogen is in the sun. Just multiply 500 million times the number of seconds in one year and multiply that by 10 billion years. That's a lot of hydrogen.

P.S. I do not think our sun is massive enough to fuse the helium core into oxygen and carbon. Once the hydrogen stops fusing, the sun will swell into a red giant, swallowing Mercury, possibly Venus, and boiling the oceans off of Earth. Mars may become quite habitable. If not Mars, then maybe Jupiter's or Saturn's moons will be capable of sustaining life.

Answer 4

As you roughly know already, Sol, our sun produces its energy by nuclear fusion, converting 596 million tons of hydrogen to 592 million tons of helium every second! In the nuclear process the "missing" 4 million tons of material is converted to pure radiate energy according to Einstein's equation E=MCsquared. The energy unleashed is the same energy released in 10BILLION 1MEGATON NUCLEAR WEAPONS exploding every second. So your question is good, why doesn't the sun burnout.

The reason the sun is still burning is that the sun is 300,000 times more massive than the earth, or about 2 thousand million million million million tons! Divide this number by about 600 million tons of converted hydrogen-helium tonnage per second gives 3.3 million million million seconds. If all the hydrogen eventually converted to helium, then this is the number of seconds that it would take to make the total hydrogen-helium conversion at its present rate or about 100 billion years. However, the sun will start to burn quicker as it continues to burn(as well as converting helium to heavier elements). Still, the sun has enough hydrogen for another 5billion years of the fusing process before "burnout". Big numbers, but I hope my explanation was straight forward & understandable.

Answer 5

When the core is exhausted of its hydrogen, the Sun is left with a central ball of helium atoms that require a higher temperature than does hydrogen to fuse into heavier elements. Now out of balance, gravity wins, the inner regions of the star collapse, and the central temperature rises through 100 million degrees, which triggers the fusion of helium into carbon.

Answer 6

It is burning out but it will take a long time before it is all used up. The sun also collects atoms from space as it moves through it.

Answer 7

Eventually it will. Then the sun will start burning Helium. It will be gone in a much shorter time.

Answer 8

The sun has a lot of helium, that last long in next melliminium.

Answer 9

It does.Eventually they're won't be any of it left and the Sun will die.Bu you don't need to worry about that,becuase that won't happen for about a billion years.

Answer 10

It does, but slowly. It will take million years to burn out.