What makes the sun so hot? and what keeps it on fire?

Question

Please explain in ENGLISH, please try not to use big scientific words.. thank you

Answer 1

There is no fire on the sun. Our star is converting hydrogen into helium (which is nuclear fusion and thus creates heat) because it is so massive that the atoms its made from are being compressed by its own gravity.

Eventually, it will run out of fuel and stop "burning" all together, becoming a white dwarf, then a black one.

Larger stars will explode and disperse their materials (the things you and I are made of) across the universe. The largest will become black holes and try to fix the mess created by the others.

Answer 2

Man, oh man. Some religious people can't leave well alone. The sun is a fission reactor. What is the difference between fusion and fission? That's a good question and I will have to refer you to other sources to explain it. Basically, fission is the process of breaking apart atoms, as opposed to fusion, where you mash atoms togeter. This process creates tremendouse energies. The fuel that the sun uses is hydrogen. It has enough fuel for about five or six billion more years. All the light and heat is the result of the process.

Answer 3

The Sun is a thermonuclear fusion reaction in perfect balance with itself.
The Sun's own weight crushes Hydrogen atoms together (into Helium) in its core, and when this happens a huge amount of energy is released. When this energy is released, the sun actually expands (super slightly), causing it to cool and fall back on itself. As it falls back on itself it crushes more Hydrogen atoms into Helium (again, and so on). This process occurs super fast, and the result is a stable, long lasting source for energy.
Life is hopelessly dependent on this reaction, but don't worry because it will not exhaust its resources for another few billion (not million) years. Most people predict intelligent life will not last that long (I would be much more concerned about our fifty thousand mini-suns on planet Earth... nukes).

Answer 4

At the core of the sun a continuous nuclear reaction has been going on for about 4.5-billion years. In this process--called nuclear fusion--the sun changes some 600-million metric tons of hydrogen into helium every SECOND. This process produces temperatures in the core of about 10-million degrees Kelvin. This nuclear fusion is the same thing that happens in a hydrogen bomb, but this one is about 250,000 miles in diameter!

Answer 5

well energy can be in many forms heat is one of them.For instance when sunlight particles hit your face the energy they release is imparted on your skin in the form of warmth. At the center of the sun there is a fuel supply of matter. The famous equation e=mc2/ means e=energy is equal to m=mass squared by c=the speed of light. Since the speed of light is a very large number that means that even a small amount of mass when squared by such a large number will equal a large number. Basically any matter can be converted or change into energy. In a 8oz glass of water there is enough energy to power thousands of homes. This works for any matter. In nuclear weapons a very small amount of uranium is converted into energy and this equals a very big and powerful bang. We humans do not know how to convert just any type of matter into energy and when we do convert matter into energy such as uranium the results may be impressive but the process in very inefficient. At the sun's core this process is happening a small amount of matter is being converted into large amount of energy. This can also work backwards when the universe was created only energy existed during the big bang that energy was changed into matter: gases,rocks,planets,elements and so on.

Answer 6

People who said "nuclear" and "fission" are wrong.

The sun is one big (and slow) THERMONUCLEAR explosion, which is supported by FUSION of hydrogen atoms into helium, and fusion of helium into heavier elements. With each fusion reaction, energy is released in the form of heat, light and other electromagnetic radiation. All that makes the sun very hot and bright indeed.

Answer 7

To simpplify what many others have said, the sun is basically a huge, perpertual hydrogen explosion. Basically an ongoing nuclear reaction (explosion). As some have also stated, it is a fission reaction.

Imagine the Hiroshima bomb times a few thousand in magnitude, but the explosion never stops.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/fusion-reactor1.htm

Answer 8

The sun is a star. All stars are balls of fire (with gases and what not) and they all eventually go out, our sun will one day burn out...However the sun isn't actually the biggest or hottest star in the galaxy, it's simply closest to us. And don't worry about the sun burning out..it's not estimated to do so for a couple more million years.

Answer 9

it is using thermo nuclear fusion I'll explain the sun Helium atoms and crushing them into hydrogen atoms and that produces alot of energy and the sun wil keep burning for 4.5 billion years

Answer 10

The solar energy combined with heat waves, thus giving us heat from the sun.