Fusion is the process that powers the sun and the stars. It is the reaction in which two atoms of hydrogen combine together, or fuse, to form an atom of helium.
In the process some of the mass of the hydrogen is converted into energy. Deuterium is plentifully available in ordinary water. Tritium can be produced by combining the fusion neutron with the abundant light metal lithium. Thus fusion has the potential to be an inexhaustible source of energy.
To make fusion happen, the atoms of hydrogen must be heated to very high temperatures million degrees so they are ionized forming a plasma and have sufficient energy to fuse, and then be held together i. Because of this, their combination results in an excess of energy being released in the form of heat and light that exits the Sun, given by the mass-energy equivalence. To exit the Sun, this energy must travel through many layers to the photosphere before it can actually emerge into space as sunlight.
Since this proton-proton chain happens frequently - 9. Although this seems like a small amount of mass, this is equal to 4. Fossil Fuels. Nuclear Fuels. Acid Rain. Climate Change. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available. Current nuclear power stations run on uranium or plutonium as nuclear fuel, but as you have seen the Sun is made up of mostly hydrogen and helium, so the Sun runs on a different type of nuclear reaction.
The type of nuclear reaction taking place in the core of the Sun is known as nuclear fusion and involves hydrogen nuclei combining together to form helium. The outward pressure of all this energy flowing out from the core to the surface helps to support the Sun against the force of gravity, preventing collapse and keeping it stable over a long period of time.
Full resolution image available here [ Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. Hide tip ]. Figure 7 illustrates the nuclear fusion process taking place in the core of the Sun. The nucleus of a hydrogen atom consists of a single proton; the helium nucleus is made up of two protons and two neutrons.
The process takes place in several stages with nuclei combining at each stage to form larger nuclei. The overall result of this chain is that four protons are combined to form one helium nucleus. During this chain, two of the protons turn into neutrons so that the final helium nucleus contains two protons and two neutrons. Because the protons each have a positive electric charge they would normally repel each other. Tremendous temperatures and pressures are required to force the protons close enough together for the fusion process to take place so these reactions can only occur in the core of the Sun where the temperature reaches up to 15 million degrees, and not in the outer layers.
Crucially, the mass of the helium nucleus produced in this chain of reactions is ever so slightly lower than the mass of the four protons that we started with. The difference is only slight — less than one per cent of the mass — but this releases a significant amount of energy. Untold billions of these reactions convert over 4 million tonnes of matter to energy every second, producing the overall energy output of the Sun.
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