How did the sun light on fire??

Question

( Please be specific!)

Answer 1

It's not actually on fire....

The sun is a condensed mass of hydrogen - as it drew together due to gravity, the pressure started to heat the core. As it compressed further, the heat & pressure grew to the point of the atoms of hydrogen began fusing together to form helium. The energy the sun expels is due to the same process that powers H-bombs - fusing hydrogen atoms into helium.

Answer 2

Well, a star is born from a large cloud of gas and dust in space, called a nebula. Over time, the particles are drawn together by gravity. The way gravity works, is that the more mass there is of the object, the more gravity it possesses. So, the gas is pulled together and the dense centerpoint of it, called the singularity, begins to become very hot from the compacted gas. Molecules move. The hotter they get, the faster they move around in the space allowed to them. Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe, and is bound to make up most of the nebula. So, the hydrogen atoms begin to move very, very, very fast. They move so fast, that when one strikes another, the nuclei of the two atoms merge. A hydrogen atom's nucleus is made of only one proton. A helium atom's nucleus is made of two protons. The result of the two hydrogen atoms combining is a helium atom. This is called nuclear fusion. This is also how the hydrogen fusion bomb works. The combination sets off an explosion, much like the hydrogen fusion bomb. And as you can imagine, a star is made up of who knows how many hydrogen atoms. So this happens at the core of the sun A LOT. Like thousands of hydrogen bombs going off at the same time per like less than half a second.

The first stage of the star is called a Protostar. The protostar still has gas from the nebula orbiting it and being pulled in. Once it is all pulled in and therefore larger and only the star itself, it is a star. Nuclear fusion strangely leaves a small amount of matter out. Like say 100 hydrogen atoms only fuse to make 49 helium atoms, instead of 50. This small amount turns into radiation, also like the hydrogen bomb. Radiation comes in many different forms depending on frequency. Visible light, heat, and other things like X-rays and Radio waves. Look up the electromagnetic spectrum.

The outward pressure of nuclear fusion maintains the shape of a star. It is large and spherical, rather than being pulled into itself by its own gravity.

The sun is not on fire. The sun is a never-ending explosion.

Answer 3

The Sun is not on fire and is not burning. When you burn wood, you get fire, that is a chemical reaction. On the Sun, a nuclear reaction takes place where hydrogen is converted to helium and some pure energy, so mass is also lost.

The nuclear reaction is started by "gravity". Jupiter doesn't have enough gravity or it too would be a like a (sun) star.

Answer 4

The sun isn't "on fire." Fire is caused by exothermic oxidation of a substance. It is a chemical reaction.

The light and heat from the sun come not from oxidation/combustion, but from nuclear fusion in it's core. The immense amounts of energy produced here make their way through the layers of the sun to finally be emitted as light and heat from its surface.

The fusion reaction started from the immense pressures on the core generated by the infant sun's gravity pulling in on itself about 5 billion years ago. The pressure and heat is so intense that a self-sustaining fusion reaction ignited and has been active ever since, and will be for another 5 billion years or so.

Answer 5

Hydrogen fuses to form Helium. This began when enough gas collected to compress the center to extremely high densities.

Some, but not all, of the Helium is fissioned back into Hydrogen. As more and more hydrogen is turned into helium, the star enlarges. Eventually it switches to Helium fusing into Carbon. At this point, the star will swell from the extra energy liberated, and it will swallow the planets around it. As the star burns up its Helium, it will switch to fusing Carbon into Iron and shrink once more into a White Dwarf. Eventually (circa 10 - 15 Billion Years) it will exaust the Carbon, and become a brown dwarf.

It's not an infinite process, it IS finite - it just takes a VERY long time to complete.

Answer 6

The sun isn't actually on fire. It's energy is caused by nuclear fusion. Hydrogen and helium molecules fused together. It all gets created in the sun's core, then takes millions of years to get to the surface.

Answer 7

Well, When the sun was formed ait had hydrogen and helium when those to met right away the sun started on fire beacuse of the chemical reaction between hydrogen and heluim.

Answer 8

The sun is a huge collection of hydrogen gas. Being so massive, the hydrogen inside is compressed. When 2 hydrogen atoms compressed together, some of the compressed mass is converted to heat. The heat is released into space which reached us.

Answer 9

As the hydrogen became compressed by gravity it heated.
As the temperature and pressure increased,the result was the fusion of hydrogen into helium at the sun's core.

Answer 10

The Sun is not on file. It is 'burning' through nuclear fusion, which began when the Sun had collapsed enough to have the internal gravity to begin the process.