How is energy generated inside stars?

Question

What elements are involved in this process inside the Sun? What happens to the missing mass in the process?

Answer 1

Appleblue,
A star such as the sun is nothing more than a really BIG fusion bomb.
“The Big Bang” started this process when it created hydrogen, and tossed it into the void. The hydrogen, by the simple fact of being mater, had gravitational attraction to all the other hydrogen and drew it into massive clouds. By the simple fact of being so close together the clouds increased the gravitywell which in turn drew the cloud in… and the gravity increased…
eventually the hydrogen was packed so tightly that it began to fuse. Hydrogen atoms began to combine and form new atoms of helium… and giving off energy as a “byproduct” of the explosion.
The explosive process tries to through the hydrogen and he helium back out into the solar system, while the gravity continues to pull it back in. resulting in a sort of “equilibrium”, and a massive bomb that will keep exploding non stop for the next few billion years, until the hydrogen is exhorted and the helium begins to combine to form still larger atoms. At that time the sun will flare into a “red giant” and the Earth will be no more.
Frightening isn’t it?
PennyAnn

Answer 2

Hydrogen is the 'active' ingredient of stars, (like our sun.)
Due to Einstein, E=mc^2 means that when four hydrogen atoms are fused, there is a reduction of mass. The missing mass is converted to energy. Since the speed of light (c) squared is a VERY large number, the destruction of a small amount of mass will yield a LARGE amount of energy.
Look at the first reference on the web below. You will see that Hydrogen has an atomic weight of 1.0079. The next element up on the periodic table is Helium. It takes 4 Hydrogen atoms to produce one Helium atom. But you will note that the atomic weight of Helium is NOT equal to the weight of Hydrogen times four. (which should be 4.0316.) It is actually 4.026. Which leaves a deficit of 0.0056. THAT is the amount of mass that was converted to energy. And so it goes all the way down the periodic table.
The second reference is the explanation of Helium fusing into Carbon. (The continuation of fusion of the Helium/Carbon/etc. produces all the other elements.) This results in a higher temperature of fusion for these elements.

The process continues untill it reaches Iron. All elements heavier than Iron will be produced if the star goes nova. (Not all stars do this.) Iron seems like heavy substance, but if the nuclear fusion process gets that far, the core of the star's mass (i.e. Iron) will be less than the total mass the star started with due to the conversion of mass-to-energy.

Answer 3

Nuclear fusion (no longer fission). Stars are so massive that the gravity at their cores is rather solid. This forces the celebrity's atoms at the same time (commonly regularly Hydrogen and Helium, reckoning on what form of celebrity and the place that's in its existence) so heavily that they grow to be very heat and energetic. while temperatures and pressures get intense adequate, fusion happens wherein 2 atoms fuse right into one million new atom whilst on the comparable time freeing great quantities of power, and for this reason via the equation E = mc^2 its mass is rather smaller than the mass of the two constituent atoms. desire this helps

Answer 4

The sun is a giant ball of gas, held in a perfect sphere by its immense gravity. As the gas collected some 4.5 billion years ago, it began to collapse on itself. As the gas particles got closer and closer together, the pressure built until the accumulation of heat began the process of nuclear fusion. The sun is about 73% hydrogen, 28% helium, and the remainder is heavy metals. Every second, 700,000,000 tons of hydrogen is converted to 695,000,000 tons of helium. 5,000,000 tons of mass is lost in the form of gamma rays.

Answer 5

nuclear fusion deep within a stars core generates the energy

Answer 6

Nuclear fusion is the power source and helium is the by-product.

Answer 7

Hydrogen and Helium atoms are going crazy and crashing into each other and create fire. In a 6 billion years our sun is supposed to be gone.