If there is no air in outer space, how does the sun burn.?

Question

as fire needs oxygen to burn I believe.

Answer 1

Firstly : There is no air is outer space. Air, mostly nitrogen and oxygen collects around sufficiently large planetoids and is trapped in their gravity wells, that is why the Earth and similiar sized or larger planets have atmospheres. Other gases are frozen in comets and exists as clouds in nebulae eventually collapsing under their own gravity to form stars. All the 'free' gas that may have been at one time abundant has since been swept up by these different phenomena.

Secondly: The Sun does not 'burn'. Burning is a combustion reaction, which as you know requires oxygen. The energy of the Sun is not produced through combustion, rather it is produced by fusion at the center of the Sun. Fusion is the reaction in which, under extreme pressure, atoms are forced together in such a way that their nuclei are pushed into one another creating a new heavier element. In our Sun the most common reaction taking place is the fusion of two hydrogen atoms to form a helium atom. This is the most common fusion reaction, the energy produced by it is massive, much greater than that of a combustion reaction of similiar mass. It is the same reaction which takes place in a nuclear explosion( not a nuclear power-plant, which relies on the reverse reaction- fission). It is occuring constantly in the sun, and therefor you can try to visualize the massive amount of energy released by millions of nuclear explosions happening simultaneously. That is how the energy from the Sun is produced.

Answer 2

That's because the sun is not on fire. Burning (combustion) is a chemical reaction. The sun is a nuclear fusion reaction. Slight difference.

Edit: When something burns, like paper, the molecules of the paper get together with the oxygen molecules in the air, and produce a reaction which rearranges the atoms to form new molecules (like carbon dioxide), but there's still the same number of each atom.

In the sun, hydrogen atoms are smashed together to form helium atoms, and a portion of their mass is turned into energy (according to einstein's equation E=mc^2).

Answer 3

You are speaking of two different things. Chemical fires need oxygen to burn (support combustion), while the Sun and all other stars BURN using something scientist call 'nuclear fusion'! In nuclear fusion, the BURNING or production of great amounts of heat and light energy are the result of hydrogen gas atoms being squeezed, under tremendously high pressures inside at the CORE of the Sun, until 'nuclear fire'(fusion) temperatures are reached. Around 10,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit!!!! Ordinary chemical fires that make use of oxygen to support the 'rapid combustion' of a combustible fuel source(like paper, wood, or coal) burn at temperatures much, much lower, at around 450 to 800 degrees Celcius.

Answer 4

Fusion. Fusion occurs when the proper materials in the proper proportions are brought together by internal forces and then fuse together.

The sun has a huge gravity it pulls down the hydrogen and compacts it tightly and fusion starts to occur and eminates in all directions including upwards from the surface.

The fusion will continue as long as there are elements able to fuse that still exists and forces (such as gravity) tending to compress them and make them fuse.

The best (although technically incorrect) way to look at fusion is to consider the Deisel engine which compresses fule and air and causes spontanioius combustion due to compression.

Fission is closer to the auto, which requires a trigger or spark

(In actualy practise, Hydrogen or Fusion bombs require an A-Bomb trigger, but that's became man is still feeble at doing fusion).

Answer 5

The above answers are correct. No real 'combustion' takes place on the sun. However, you asked that since there is no air in outer space, how does it burn? You imply that there is no oxygen on a body as large as the sun, because it is in space. The earth is many times smaller and though it is itself in space, it retains the atmosphere we breath. There are other planets in our own solar system that retain their own atmosphere as well.

Answer 6

I assume by burning you are refering to the process of combution which is a reduction reaction.

The Sun does not Burn as such. Its Atomic reactions are not the same as in combustion process.
The Sun radiates a mass loss due to a Nuclear fusion process. In Nuclear fusion atoms combine to form Helium Atoms and in the process the extra atomic mass of formation known as mass diffect is discarted in the form of radiation.

Therefore , the Sun does not burn it just passes away just as are the rest of the stars and galaxies in the Heavens.

Answer 7

The sun does not burn; it is too hot to do so. It is powered by thermonuclear fusion, in which hydrogen at its center is combined to make helium. The helium weighs slightly less, and the lost mass appears as energy -- a lot of it. The same process is used in a hydrogen bomb.

Answer 8

Combustion does require oxygen, but stars do not burn. Stars generate energy through nuclear fusion.

Answer 9

burning of lets say a is
a + O =something + energy (2 atoms to molecules and energy)

energy as exothermic reaction

whereas sun's nuclear fusion is

H + H (colliding atom) = He(another atom) + energy

here energy b'cos E=mc^2

Answer 10

Fusion! That's what happens at core of the sun, Hydrogen is converted to the Helium, through powerful nuclear reaction.

Now do you know how long it takes for the energy to reach the surface?
17000 years!