What does the fusion reaction convert hydrogen into?

What does the fusion reaction convert hydrogen into?

The primary source of solar energy, and that of similar size stars, is the fusion of hydrogen to form helium (the proton–proton chain reaction), which occurs at a solar-core temperature of 14 million kelvin. In heavier stars, the CNO cycle and other processes are more important.

What does fusion in our Sun convert?

The Sun shines because it is able to convert energy from gravity into light. This is what happens to the hydrogen gas in the core of the Sun. It gets squeeze together so tightly that four hydrogen nuclei combine to form one helium atom. This is called nuclear fusion.

What will the Sun fuse after hydrogen?

helium fusion
When our Sun runs out of hydrogen fuel in the core, it will contract and heat up to a sufficient degree that helium fusion can begin. Once that mass/temperature threshold is crossed, the star begins fusing hydrogen into helium, and will encounter one of three different fates.

What is produced from the fusion of hydrogen?

helium
The fusion reaction Hydrogen (H) “burning” initiates the fusion energy source of stars and leads to the formation of helium (He). Generation of fusion energy for practical use also relies on fusion reactions between the lightest elements that burn to form helium.

Why is mass lost in nuclear fusion?

This means that if two low-mass nuclei can be fused together to form a larger nucleus, energy can be released. The larger nucleus has a greater binding energy and less mass per nucleon than the two that combined. Thus mass is destroyed in the fusion reaction, and energy is released (see Figure 2).

Is the Sun hot enough for fusion?

As explained earlier, the fusion process begins with two protons coming together and one up-quark turning into a down-quark to create a neutron. This is around 200 times hotter than the core of the Sun, so not hot enough for fusion!

Is the Sun a fission or fusion?

Although the energy produced by fission is comparable to what is produced by fusion, the core of the sun is dominated by hydrogen and at temperatures where hydrogen fusion is possible, so that the dominant source of energy per cubic meter is in fusion rather then the fission of very low abundance radioisotopes.

How much hydrogen does the Sun fuse every second?

In its core, the Sun fuses 620 million metric tons of hydrogen each second.

How is fusion created?

Fusion is the process that powers the sun and the stars. To make fusion happen, the atoms of hydrogen must be heated to very high temperatures (100 million degrees) so they are ionized (forming a plasma) and have sufficient energy to fuse, and then be held together i.e. confined, long enough for fusion to occur.

Why fusion is impossible on Earth?

Normally, fusion is not possible because the strongly repulsive electrostatic forces between the positively charged nuclei prevent them from getting close enough together to collide and for fusion to occur. The nuclei can then fuse, causing a release of energy.

How hard is fusion?

Future fusion reactors will not produce high activity, long lived nuclear waste, and a meltdown at a fusion reactor is practically impossible.