But, helium isn't the only chemical element being forged in the sun. This hydrogen-burning helium forging phase is what astrophysicists call the main sequence lifetime of a star. That equates to about 260 billion Joules, enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for about 100 years.īecause of its tremendous hydrogen content, the sun has maintained this fusion rate for around four and a half billion years and will continue to do so for a further four and a half billion years until the hydrogen in its center is exhausted. If four grams of hydrogen were converted to helium through this process, only 0.0028 grams would escape as energy. During this time the photons are undergoing a series of collisions, absorptions, and re-emissions, which 'downgrade' their energy to photons of visible light eventually radiated out by the photosphere.Įach occurrence of the PPI radiates about 0.0000000000044 Joules, which means - ignoring the other fusion process going on in the sun - our star has to complete this process about 9x10³⁷ (9 followed by 37 zeroes) times every second to maintain its luminosity! These photons will struggle to escape the star's dense interior, however - taking over 30,000 years to move from the core to the surface. While some of the energy is carried away as the kinetic energy of the daughter particle, the majority is carried by the two gamma-ray photons. (Image credit: Mark Garlick/Getty Images) Four protons (hydrogen nuclei) are combining on the left, releasing in the process two protons and two neutrons (a helium nucleus). An illustration of the process of nuclear fusion, specifically the creation of helium from hydrogen.
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