Here’s a colorful primer on that great Nuclear Fusion reactor in the sky:
Life on Earth is absolutely dependent on the Sun. If it suddenly shut down, it would take eight minutes for our world to be plunged into total darkness.
Its energy comes from nuclear fusion taking place deep in its core. Heat and pressure at the center force hydrogen atoms together to make heavier helium. This process releases unimaginable amounts of energy, similar to the explosion of a hydrogen bomb.This energy travels slowly through the Sun’s surface (its journey takes over 200,000 years). Here, it escapes into space as heat and light, making life possible here on Earth.