Why doesn't the Sun just burn up?

Answer 1

If the sun produced its energy by burning(like a wood fire, chemically changing atoms or molecules to other types of molecules by transferring or shifting pair bonds of small outer atom particles called electrons), the sun would indeed "burn up". In exothermic(producing heat) chemical reactions only these very light electrons give up energy. However, the sun produces its energy by the much more powerful & efficient nuclear fusion(nuclear bombs) process(hydrogen atoms are slammed together to form helium). In the sun 700 million TONS of hydrogen produces 695 million TONS of helium PER SECOND. The excess 5 million TONS PER SECOND of hydrogen-helium material is converted to pure radiant energy by Einstein's famous equation:
E=MCsquared =M times C times C;
where E= energy,
M=mass,
C =the speed of light=984million feet per second.

As you can see, energy is very very much when 5 million TONS OF MASS is multiplied by the speed of light(almost 1 billion feet per second), not just once, but TWICE. That is why a nuclear fusion bomb is millions of times more powerful than a chemical bomb. But the sun's energy per second isn't just one nuclear bomb...it is the very same energy as 10 BILLION NUCLEAR BOMBS PER SECOND. You may get an inkling of an idea how much power this is, if you imagine 1 square mile of terrain on the earth. In that square mile imagine 50 nuclear bombs blowing up...then one second later, 50 more nuclear bombs...then one second later, 50 more nuclear bombs...& on & on & on & on. However, that is just in one square mile on the earth. Now image that EVERY SQUARE MILE ALL OVER THE EARTH, FROM THE EQUATOR TO THE NORTH & SOUTH POLES ALSO HAVE 50 NUCLEAR BOMBS PER SECOND BLOWING UP.

That is the power of the sun.

However, you say....fusing 700 million tons hydrogen per second must still burn the sun up in short order.

But the sun is huge...108 times the diameter & 300, 000 times the mass of the earth...for a grand total of 2200 million million million million tons of mostly hydrogen fuel. At its present rate, it would take 3.1 million million million seconds or 100 billion years to fuse its hydrogen. Towards the end of the sun's life, the sun will fuse quicker. But still the sun will fuse for 5 billion more years.

Answer 2

"Burn up"

As in Fire?... Fire is an exothermic Chemical reaction... The Sun is not actually the Ball of Fire it appears to be.

The Sun is a ball of glowing hot Metal. Like a hot branding Iron, if you want to think of it that way.

Only, the metal that the Sun is mostly made out of it Hydrogen rather than Iron like a Hot Iron would be.

Now this hydrogen is extremely hot (so it's glowing) but it's burning in the way we think of Fire as Burning.

The Sun is so large that if the gravity from all that Hydrogen is placing the center under a great deal of pressure.

Under that pressure and at the high temperatures, the Hydrogen is being forced into more compact Atoms - Helium mostly, but also Lithium and many other elements... Now when this happens there's a great deal of energy released, which adds to the heat (molecular Kenetic Energy), and increases the temperature in that region, even as the pressure is relieved just slightly by the fusion...

Eventually, the sun's pressure will come down enough as the Hydrogen is changed into more compact atoms, that the outer layers will burst away like steam leaving a boiling pot. All that will be left is the White hot core, which will slowly cool...

Answer 3

The Sun is not on fire - fire is a chemical reaction that requires oxygen.

At the core of the Sun hydrogen is being turned into helium by a process called nuclear fusion. This fusion is happening at a steady rate, which is why the Sun gives off a steady amount of light.

The Sun has been steadily fusing hydrogen into helium for about 4.5 billion years so far. It has enough hydrogen fuel in its core to last another 5 billion years or so. So it won't last forever, but 5 billion years is long enough for me!

Answer 4

The Sun technically is burning up it's reserve of fuel which is mainly Hydrogen but this will make millions of years. That's not literally the end as it will then swell to a red giant and then shrink as the very last of it's fuel begins to disappear.

Hopefully by that time we would have advanced to move on and find another home.

Answer 5

It is, except that it is taking several billion years to do it. If you mean why doesn't the hot hydrogen chemically combine with oxygen very rapidly and form water (the Hindenburg Hypothesis ;o) ) it is because of two reasons a) there ain't enough oxygen in the sun to do it, and mostly b) the sun is so darn hot from all the fusion goodness in the core, that water would not be stable. . . it would break apart as soon as it formed even if you could find any non ionized oxygen to take part in the reaction in the first place!

Answer 6

The sun is burning up, but its going to take a long time before all the fuel is gone

Answer 7

The Sun burns everything else, but never does it burn itself. This is the attribute of a Singular Universal entity.
For example, the wind blows everything but never is the wind blown away
The Sword can cut anything into pieces but itself can never be cut (Not even by another sword)

Answer 8

The sun is burning up. It has since its' birth. The Sun's current age, determined using computer models of stellar evolution and nucleocosmochronology, is thought to be about 4.57 billion years. And that's because it is estimated that it is only about half-way through its life.

Answer 9

Maybe the total mass is very big and the burnning parts are very small.
The outside part is only 5000 degrees.
Maybe it will not be burn up, but it will be gone with all subjects in our entire univeerse.

Answer 10

H to He Who Am The Only One, as Van der Graaf Generator once said.