A solar flare on our sun in 2013.
(Photo:NASA/Goddard/SDO)
The Sun has been a source of fascination since ancient days.
Ancient astronomers such asAnaxagorasnoted its fiery nature.
A solar flare on our sun in 2013. (Photo:NASA/Goddard/SDO)
Space is famously not hospitable to human survival due in part to the lack of breathable oxygen.
This molecular oxygen is what we breathe on Earth.
Interestingly, breathable oxygen was created after the Big Bang.Nuclear fusionwithin young stars produced oxygen as we know it.
Fire requires oxygen to burnat least16%of the atmosphere.
But the lack of oxygen does not affect the glowing of the Sun.
The Sun is not in fact burning, in the sense of earthly combustion.
Instead, it has an ongoing nuclear fusion reaction.
A mass of hydrogen and helium at extreme temperature and pressure react to produce light and heat.
The leftover mass becomes energy.
That’s how the Sun burns in the oxygen-deprived realm of space.
