• Question: how does the sun burn without oxygen

    Asked by Exotic_Elite to Marta on 15 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Marta Varela

      Marta Varela answered on 15 Mar 2017:

      Hi Exotic Elite!

      The Sun is not burning in the way that things on Earth do. (A light bulb doesn’t burn either and it releases a lot of heat and light nonetheless…)

      The Sun uses a process called nuclear fusion, which transforms hydrogen into helium. This releases an immense amount of energy! Here our Earth, we are trying to mimic this process in fusion reactors to have clean energy, but are struggling to do so, because nuclear fusion requires such high temperatures and pressure.

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