Does the Sun produce photons?
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Does the Sun produce photons?
Deep in the sun’s fiery core, atoms fuse and create light. An elegant interaction powers the sun, producing the light and energy that makes life possible. This process often leads to the creation of a photon, the particles of light that are released from the sun.
How much hydrogen does the Sun fuse every second?
It fuses about 600 million tons of hydrogen every second, yielding 596 million tons of helium. The remaining four million tons of hydrogen are converted to energy, which makes the Sun shine.
How does the Sun get hydrogen?
Through most of the Sun’s life, energy has been produced by nuclear fusion in the core region through a series of nuclear reactions called the p–p (proton–proton) chain; this process converts hydrogen into helium.
How does the Sun turn hydrogen into helium?
In the core of the Sun hydrogen is being converted into helium. This is called nuclear fusion. It takes four hydrogen atoms to fuse into each helium atom. During the process some of the mass is converted into energy.
What creates a photon?
A photon is produced whenever an electron in a higher-than-normal orbit falls back to its normal orbit. During the fall from high energy to normal energy, the electron emits a photon — a packet of energy — with very specific characteristics. A sodium vapor light energizes sodium atoms to generate photons.
How much hydrogen does our sun have?
The sun is a big ball of gas and plasma. Most of the gas — 92\% — is hydrogen….Abundance of elements.
| Element | Abundance (pct. of total number of atoms) | Abundance (pct. of total mass) |
|---|---|---|
| Hydrogen | 91.2 | 71.0 |
| Helium | 8.7 | 27.1 |
| Oxygen | 0.078 | 0.97 |
| Carbon | 0.043 | 0.40 |
Where does hydrogen fusion occur in the sun?
core
Inside the Sun, this process begins with protons (which is simply a lone hydrogen nucleus) and through a series of steps, these protons fuse together and are turned into helium. This fusion process occurs inside the core of the Sun, and the transformation results in a release of energy that keeps the sun hot.
Where do photons originate in the sun?
Generated by nuclear fusion within the Sun’s core, the photons first enter the dense radiative zone that makes up the inner two-thirds of the Sun’s radius. The photons are repeatedly scattered by atomic nuclei and, after perhaps a million years, they reach the outer third of the Sun, known as the convection layer.