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Sun converts 4 (not 400) million tons of matter per second!

Muse

Muse

Lifer
Unless I heard wrong, that's what the announcer said during the recent Einstein special on PBS, "Einstein's Big Idea." Man, that's a lot of energy. Maybe in the same program, maybe in the Einstein book I'm reading, they said that the energy in a raisin would power NYC for almost a day.

Edit: According to Wikepedia, it's 4 million tons, not 400 million tons:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun
 
Originally posted by: shocksyde
If you like factoids like that, read "Death by Black Hole" by Niel DeGrasse Tyson.
Click to expand...

My local library has these titles by him:

The sky is not the limit : adventures of an urban astrophysicist

One universe : at home in the cosmos

Merlin's tour of the universe : a skywatcher's guide to everything from Mars and quasars to comets, planets, blue moons, and werewolves


I don't see that at Amazon.com, i.e. Death by Black Hole
 
Originally posted by: Muse
Originally posted by: shocksyde
If you like factoids like that, read "Death by Black Hole" by Niel DeGrasse Tyson.
Click to expand...

My local library has these titles by him:

The sky is not the limit : adventures of an urban astrophysicist

One universe : at home in the cosmos

Merlin's tour of the universe : a skywatcher's guide to everything from Mars and quasars to comets, planets, blue moons, and werewolves


I don't see that at Amazon.com, i.e. Death by Black Hole
Click to expand...

Here's an Amazon link for ya
 
The Sun is a mass of incadescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace. Where hydrogen is built into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees. Yo-ho it's hot, the Sun is not a place where we can live. But here on Earth there'd be no life without the light it gives. We need its light, we need its heat, we need its energy. Without the Sun, without a doubt, there'd be no you and me.
 
Originally posted by: dainthomas
Originally posted by: SunnyD
What boggles my mind is that we have no way to directly harness E.
Click to expand...

You've never heard of Mr Fusion?
Click to expand...

To my knowledge, Fusion remains a carrot dangling from a stick stuck to a cap on your head. Tantalizing but no foreseeable attainment on the horizon, although a lot of money has been (and probably still is being) spent on it. I'm hopeful that it will be mastered some day. It would seem to have the potential to help solve a lot of our problems. The mass of a lemon/day should do us.
 
Originally posted by: Born2bwire
The Sun is a mass of incadescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace. Where hydrogen is built into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees. The Sun is hot, the Sun is not a place where we can live. But here on Earth there'd be no life without the light it gives. We need its light, we need its heat, we need its energy. Without the Sun, without a doubt, there'd be no you and me.
Click to expand...

Captain obvious to the rescue!!
 
Originally posted by: Mxylplyx
Originally posted by: Born2bwire
The Sun is a mass of incadescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace. Where hydrogen is built into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees. The Sun is hot, the Sun is not a place where we can live. But here on Earth there'd be no life without the light it gives. We need its light, we need its heat, we need its energy. Without the Sun, without a doubt, there'd be no you and me.
Click to expand...

Captain obvious to the rescue!!
Click to expand...

Scientists have found that the sun is a huge atom-smashing machine.
The heat and light of the sun come from the nuclear reactions of
hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and helium.
 
Originally posted by: Mxylplyx
Originally posted by: Born2bwire
The Sun is a mass of incadescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace. Where hydrogen is built into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees. The Sun is hot, the Sun is not a place where we can live. But here on Earth there'd be no life without the light it gives. We need its light, we need its heat, we need its energy. Without the Sun, without a doubt, there'd be no you and me.
Click to expand...

Captain obvious to the rescue!!
Click to expand...

It's cool to think about though.

Sun, water, air, ...

Take away any one thing, and this world would be entirely different
 
Originally posted by: Muse
Originally posted by: dainthomas
Originally posted by: SunnyD
What boggles my mind is that we have no way to directly harness E.
Click to expand...

You've never heard of Mr Fusion?
Click to expand...

To my knowledge, Fusion remains a carrot dangling from a stick stuck to a cap on your head. Tantalizing but no foreseeable attainment on the horizon, although a lot of money has been (and probably still is being) spent on it. I'm hopeful that it will be mastered some day. It would seem to have the potential to help solve a lot of our problems.
Click to expand...

back 2 the future reference goes ROCKETING OVER YOUR HEAD
 
Have you seen the movie "Sunshine"? You should. 🙂

One of the more interesting facts about the sun IMO is that its magnetic field stretches out nearly a light-year, way way past any of the planets.
 
Originally posted by: Vic
Have you seen the movie "Sunshine"? You should. 🙂

One of the more interesting facts about the sun IMO is that its magnetic field stretches out nearly a light-year, way way past any of the planets.
Click to expand...

Well, technically speaking, magnetic fields are infinite. i.e. they dissipate inversely with the square of the distance, so they never become zero. I'll look into Sunshine, though (with a filter, of course).
 
Originally posted by: Anubis
Originally posted by: Muse
Originally posted by: dainthomas
Originally posted by: SunnyD
What boggles my mind is that we have no way to directly harness E.
Click to expand...

You've never heard of Mr Fusion?
Click to expand...

To my knowledge, Fusion remains a carrot dangling from a stick stuck to a cap on your head. Tantalizing but no foreseeable attainment on the horizon, although a lot of money has been (and probably still is being) spent on it. I'm hopeful that it will be mastered some day. It would seem to have the potential to help solve a lot of our problems.
Click to expand...

back 2 the future reference goes ROCKETING OVER YOUR HEAD
Click to expand...

Sadly my friend, the Children these days are too young for Back to the Future. They think of it as one of those old fogie movies. 🙂 Isn't it scary that the "Future" from BTTF is only 7 years away?
 
Yes, IF you could completely convert a bit of matter into energy, it'd be handy. You'd need a ton of antimatter, and that takes a lot more energy to obtain than you ever get out of such a reaction.
 
Originally posted by: venkman
Originally posted by: Anubis
Originally posted by: Muse
Originally posted by: dainthomas
Originally posted by: SunnyD
What boggles my mind is that we have no way to directly harness E.
Click to expand...

You've never heard of Mr Fusion?
Click to expand...

To my knowledge, Fusion remains a carrot dangling from a stick stuck to a cap on your head. Tantalizing but no foreseeable attainment on the horizon, although a lot of money has been (and probably still is being) spent on it. I'm hopeful that it will be mastered some day. It would seem to have the potential to help solve a lot of our problems.
Click to expand...

back 2 the future reference goes ROCKETING OVER YOUR HEAD
Click to expand...

Sadly my friend, the Children these days are too young for Back to the Future. They think of it as one of those old fogie movies. 🙂 Isn't it scary that the "Future" from BTTF is only 7 years away?
Click to expand...

blah im 26 im not a fogie
 
Originally posted by: Born2bwire
Originally posted by: Mxylplyx
Originally posted by: Born2bwire
The Sun is a mass of incadescent gas, a gigantic nuclear furnace. Where hydrogen is built into helium at a temperature of millions of degrees. The Sun is hot, the Sun is not a place where we can live. But here on Earth there'd be no life without the light it gives. We need its light, we need its heat, we need its energy. Without the Sun, without a doubt, there'd be no you and me.
Click to expand...

Captain obvious to the rescue!!
Click to expand...

Scientists have found that the sun is a huge atom-smashing machine.
The heat and light of the sun come from the nuclear reactions of
hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and helium.
Click to expand...

negative

only hydrogen (and helium?) are used to generate energy. Any other elements found in stars are either produced in that star, or were part of the stellar gas clouds that existed in the vicinity of the star during its formation.
Our star is much too small to produce heavy elements, it's only producing helium. Helium may not even be used at all in the Sun, but rather is just a byproduct of the fusion of hydrogen.

+
 
Originally posted by: Random Variable
I vaguely remember reading that lead is the heaviest element that can be produced by fusion . I don't remember why, though.
Click to expand...

Sorry charlie - Iron or Nickel I believe is the heaviest elemental atom a solar mass can create via fusion.
 
Originally posted by: SunnyD
Originally posted by: Random Variable
I vaguely remember reading that lead is the heaviest element that can be produced by fusion . I don't remember why, though.
Click to expand...

Sorry charlie - Iron or Nickel I believe is the heaviest elemental atom a solar mass can create via fusion.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's iron.

 
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