Can you provide info on the energy output of the Sun and how it produces energy?

Answer 1

There are lots of websites that have that information available. I don't remember the number for solar energy output off the top of my head, but the mechanism for generating it is simple; It's a fusion reaction. Just like a hydrogen bomb.

HTH

Doug

Answer 2

The Sun's Luminosity is 3.85x10^26 Watts

Almost all of this energy comes from the fusion of Hydrogen nuclei (protons) to form Helium nuclei, in the solar core (see link). The total mass of a nucleus of Helium is a tiny bit less than the sum of 4 nuclei of Hydrogen.

(PS: Every second, it takes almost 1,000,000,000,000 hydrogen nuclei, turning into 250,000,000,000 helium nuclei to produce one Watt of power. At that temperature, we talk of a nucleus [plural = nuclei] because it is way too hot for electrons to stick around atoms -- therefore they are not really atoms: no electrons)

The tiny difference in mass (mass of 4 H minus mass of 1 He) is turned to energy in accordance with the famous equation E = m*c^2. Still, that 'tiny' difference is over 4 million tonnes per second.

The surface brilliance of the Sun is 6.32x10^7 W/m^2 giving it an 'effective' temperature of 5780 K (approx. 9900 F) .

By the time it gets to Earth, it is down to 1370 W/m^2 (Watts per square metre), of which 37% is reflected back (mostly by clouds) before it has a chance to heat anything up.

The rest (63% of 1370 W/m^2) is what we get down here on the surface.

Answer 3

im not going to give you specific numbers, because you might not understand what im talking about so i am going to simplify it for you. enough energy reaches the earth from the sun every minute to meet the worlds energy needs for millions of years. amazing. the source of the suns energy is nuclear fusion. fusing hydrogen atoms to create helium and light (energy) via einsteins equation E=MC squared. hope this helps!!!!!!!!

Answer 4

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/sun_mysteries_020716-1.html

try here or just look around space.com