What powers the Sun?

Astr 297
Geary Albright
The Sun
• What is the Sun?
• What is it made of?
• How much energy does the Sun
give off?
• What powers the Sun?

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Solar Composition
Element Abundance by mass
Hydrogen 73.5%
Helium 24.8%
Oxygen 0.788%
Carbon 0.326%
Nitrogen 0.118%
Iron 0.162%
Silicon
Magnesium
Neon

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The Sun
• Luminosity = 3.83 x 1026 W
• Solar constant = 1370 W/m2
• Density = 1.41 g/cm3
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• Diameter = 1.392 x 10 m = 109 Dearth =
3.6 times the Earth-Moon distance
• Mass = 1.989 x 1030 kg = 332,776 Mearth

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Energy Generation
• In the 19th century, Lord Kelvin and
Hermann von Helmholtz proposed
that the Sun is powered by its
gradual collapse.
– Collapse releases gravitational energy.
– Sun would shrink by about 40 meters/yr.
– Sun would be 100 million years old.
– At the turn of the century, it was
realized that the Earth is much older.

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Energy
• Energy is the ability to do work.
– The unit of energy is the joule.
– 4.2 joules of energy are required to
raise one gram of water one degree
K.
– A barrel of oil contains about 1010
joules.

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Power
• Power is the rate at which energy is
being used.
– The unit of power is the watt = 1 joule/s.
– A 100 watt bulb uses 100 joules per sec.
– 26
The Sun is giving off 3.82x10 watts.
– Astronomers use the term luminosity to
describe the rate at which a star is giving
off energy.

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The Sun is giving off 3.8x1026 watts. If the U.S.
consumes about 1x1020 joules of energy per
year, for how many years could a single second
of the Sun’s output power the U.S.?

1. 380 years
2. 38,000 years
3. 380,000 years
4. 3.8 million years
5. 380 million years

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Energy Generation
• Einstein’s Special Theory of
Relativity
– Mass and energy are equivalent:
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•E = mc
– This conversion formula describes the
amount of energy that is released
when we convert matter into energy.

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Energy Generation
• Consider converting 1 kg of matter to
energy:
– E = mc2 = 1 kg x (3x108 m/s)2 = 9x1016 J
– This is equivalent to 15 million barrels of oil!
(1 barrel of crude oil has 6x109 J).
– In 2001, the U.S. consumed about 1x1020 J of
energy
• This is equivalent to 17 billion barrels of oil
– About 60 barrels per person
• Also equivalent to total conversion of 1100 kg of
matter to energy
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Nuclear Reactions
• In the 1920s, Gamow, Teller and
Bethe suggested that the
conversion of matter into energy
might power the Sun.
• Such conversion is possible
through nuclear reactions.

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Nuclear Reactions
• Fission reactions are those where
heavy atomic nuclei are broken
down into lighter nuclei.
• Fusion reactions are those where
light atomic nuclei come together
to form heavier atomic nuclei.

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Nuclear Reactions

fission fusio
n 13
In the center of the Sun, where the temperature
is 15 million K, we would expect essentially all
the hydrogen to be

1. Ionized
2. Denatured
3. An isotope
4. Excited

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Two ionized hydrogen atoms
will
1. Repel one another since they both
have negative charges.
2. Repel one another since they both
have positive charges.
3. Attract one another since their
electrons are missing
4. Neither attract nor repel one another
since they have no charge (they are
ionized).
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Nuclear Reactions
• The strong nuclear force holds the
nucleus together.
• During fusion, as the new nucleus comes
together, some of the nuclear energy
(called binding energy) is released.
– When binding energy is released, the
resulting nucleus has slightly less mass than
before.
– The missing mass was converted into the
binding energy.
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Nuclear Reactions
• Consider converting (fusion) 4 H
atoms into one He atom:
• 4 H atoms = 6.693x10-27 kg
• 1 He atom = 6.645x10-27 kg
• The difference, 0.048x10-27 kg, or
0.0071 of the initial mass, is
converted to energy.
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Nuclear Reactions
• Thus, converting 1 kg of hydrogen to
helium converts 7.1 grams of matter to
energy:
– E = mc2 = 0.0071 kg x (3x108 m/s)2 =
6.4x1014 J
– To produce the luminosity of the Sun,
3.83x1026 W, 600 million tons of H is
converted to He every second, with about 4
million tons of matter being converted into
energy every second.
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P-P Chain
• The primary source of power in the
Sun is the P-P (proton-proton) chain.
• In the P-P chain, protons collide
directly with other protons.
– To overcome the electromagnetic
repul-sion, extreme temperatures are
required (T must be greater than 10
million K).
– The center of the Sun has a
temperature of about 15 million K.
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P-P Chain positro neutrino
n
mas
s
charge

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21
Hydrostatic Equilibrium
• The Sun is a gas throughout.
– Pressure increases with temperature.
• The Sun is in hydrostatic
equilibrium, neither expanding nor
contracting.
– At each point in the Sun, the force of
gravity is balanced by the pressure of
the gas.
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Hydrostatic Equilibrium

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If the center of the Sun could be heated slightly,
the nuclear reactions would occur faster and
hence release more heat, so the Sun’s core
would
1. Collapse.
2. Expand and hence cool back to
its previous temperature.
3. Expand and hence heat up even
more.
4. Explode.

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Hydrostatic Equilibrium
• Since the weight of overlying
material increases as we move
inward, the temperature must
increase.
– A simple calculation shows that the
center of the Sun must have a
temperature of 15 million K, sufficient
to support nuclear reactions.
– The pressure is tremendous.
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Theoretical Model of the
Sun

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Energy Transport in the
Sun
• In the core, the energy is transported by
radiation.
– The gamma rays diffuse outward, loosing energy
in each encounter.
• In the core, a photon can travel about 0.006 cm before
being scattered.
• In the outer parts of the Sun, a photon can travel about
5 cm, on average, before being scattered.
– At each scattering, the photon is just as likely to
head back toward the center as out to the
surface.
– On average, it takes 23,000 years for a photon
to escape from the Sun.
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Random Walk

23,00
0 28
Energy Transport in the
Sun
• In the outer part of the Sun,
convection transports the energy.
– Currents of hot material rise while
cool material sinks.

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CNO Cycle
• In stars more massive than the Sun, the
CNO Cycle (carbon-nitrogen-oxygen) is
responsible for most of the energy
generation.
• A carbon nucleus acts as a catalyst to
start the reaction. At the end of the
cycle, the carbon nucleus remains.
• The CNO Cycle requires temperatures
above 15 million K.
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CNO Cycle

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