By Dennis Schatz - Vice President of Strategic Development
The question in this edition is:
What Powers The Sun?
The Answer - Hydrogen
Scroll down to see the solution to our
puzzle.
The center of the Sun is so hot and under so much pressure
that hydrogen atoms are fusing together to form helium
atoms. This releases vast amounts of energy that keeps the
Sun hot and produces the outward pressure needed to keep
the Sun from collapsing under its own gravitational force.
In 4.5 billion years the Sun will run out of hydrogen in
its core. When that happens, the center of the Sun will
collapse and get hotter until it can fuse helium into
carbon. At the same time the Sun's outer layers will expand
and cool until the Sun's surface is beyond the orbit of the
Earth. The Sun will then be a red giant star, much like the
star Betelguese in the constellation of Orion.
Here is the solution:
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