The Sun S Energy Comes From Which Nuclear Reaction

The sun s energy comes from nuclear reactions that fuse lighter nuclei into heavier ones releasing energy in the process.

The sun s energy comes from which nuclear reaction.

Every second the sun fuses 620 billion kg of hydrogen nuclei protons into helium to produce 384 6 trillion trillion joules of energy per second this is equivalent to the energy released in the explosion of 91 92 billion megatons of tnt per second. And helium 3 helium 4 fusion into two helium 4s accounts for 3 of the reactions by number releasing 19 99 mev of energy for each reaction. The core is the only part of the sun that produces an appreciable amount of heat through fusion. Because this chain of reactions starts with two hydrogen nuclei that is two single protons it is called the proton proton chain in step 1 two protons collide and fuse forming deuterium which is designated 2 h or d.

The solar fusion process begins when two protons the nuclei of hydrogen atoms merge to produce a deuterium nucleus. Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei are combined to form one or more different atomic nuclei and subatomic particles neutrons or protons the difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifested as either the release or absorption of energy this difference in mass arises due to the difference in atomic binding energy between the atomic nuclei. Hydrogen atoms are fused together to produce helium. 10 8 of the sun s total energy.

All useful nuclear energy produced on earth comes from nuclear fission of u 235 and or pu 239 in a variety of different reactor designs. Nuclear reactions in the sun core 15 million o k photosphere visible surface 5700 o k photons no longer collide can escape chromosphere 10 000 o k corona 2 million o k low density but high temperature due to magnetic fields and violent convective motions of lower layers source of x rays. As a result of that fusion energy is released in the form of heat. A positron and a neutrino.

Deuterium is the heavy isotope of hydrogen with a nucleus consisting of a proton and a neutron. Nuclear fusion is the process that occurs in the sun that produces energy. Sun the ultimate nuclear fusion reactor. The proton proton chain reaction also commonly referred to as the p p chain is one of two known sets of nuclear fusion reactions by which stars convert hydrogen to helium it dominates in stars with masses less than or equal to that of the sun whereas the cno cycle the other known reaction is suggested by theoretical models to dominate in stars with masses greater than about 1 3 times.

In the stars it comes from fusion of hydrogen not fission.