gravition was once to explain the Sun's energy what data cause this to be abandoned?

Answer 1

You're referring to the theory that the sun's heat results from gravitational collapse -- that is, the energy is released by the sun's matter falling inward toward the center of the sun.

If you assume that the sun has been radiating at its present level since its creation, then it's possible to calculate how long ago the sun's diameter must have been equal to the radius of the earth's orbit, meaning that the earth (if it could have existed in those conditions) was orbiting at the surface of a much larger sun.

That number was worked out to be about 18 million years, meaning that if the sun's energy came from contraction, the earth couldn't be more than 18 million years old.

When paleontologists established that life had existed on earth for much longer than 18 million years, and geologists established that some uranium-bearing rocks were 4 billion years old, it was quickly seen that the earth had to be much older than 18 million years, meaning that the sun's energy had to come from some other source.

Answer 2

I think the main blow (originally) to that theory was the age of the fossil record here on Earth. We can calculate the original amount of gravitational potential of the gas cloud that formed the sun because we can measure the sun's mass. Given that initial amount of available energy and the rate at which it is currently being radiated away, the sun would have exhausted it's supply of available energy in just a few thousand years, far far less time than the earth (and sun) has existed. In other words, if it was only gravitational energy, given the known age of the solar system, the sun would be very cold and dark by now, so we knew the energy must be coming from something other than gravitational potential.

Answer 3

The advance in quantum physics as well as astrophysics has caused this data to be abandoned....now it has been made pretty clear that Gravity is able to better explain the interaction between enormous bodies, and is in general a weak force, as compared to the nuclear forces, that are many times stronger and are more suited to explain the interaction of minute particles like atoms and molecules. So it follows that nuclear fusion is much more apt in explaining the energy origins of the Sun, wheras Gravity is better suited for explaining the interaction between the Sun and its planets, etc.

Answer 4

Gravity is what allows the sun to produce energy. The gravity compresses the hydrogen in the sun's core to the density where nuclear fusion can occur. The gravity doesn't create the heat that the sun radiates, but it is needed for the mechanism to occur

Answer 5

It is interesting that people use theories in the manner they do. The age of rocks is determined by the fossils found in them and the fossils by the rock formation they are in. Do you see any short circuit thinking in this? Further comment on this has already been given.

The concept of hydrogen to helium heat generation does not work with present understanding of our sun's construction. Were a person to determine mass acceleration at a distance of 400 miles from its very center, they would find that mass within this region would be accelerating to a speed greater than that of the speed of light in one second, were it possible for a mass to be released in that area and free to fall. This means mass is being compressed at a distance of 400 miles from the center of our sun to such a degree that it converts into radiation, thus it no longer remains as mass but becomes a very intense form of surroundaing heat upon being generated. Mass at a great distance upward from this area is so dense that it is impossible for there to be a migration of hydrogen to a location below in order to be converted into helium. It is obvious, that were there to be a gas migration in any direction it would be upward. It would move in the direction of least resistence and not in that of greater resistence. Were the hydrogen being converted into helium where it is, it would all convert at one and form a huge hydrogen bomb. Gas migration within our sun is impossible due to mass density increase as one moves toward its center.

Physicist Von Helmholtz, who lived in the 1800s, postulated that the force of gravity continually compressed the mass of the sun in such manner that heat was generated. I think he was right.