• Question: what is the sun made out of?

    Asked by wheew001 to David, Rebecca, Simon, Verity, Wei on 22 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Verity Nye

      Verity Nye answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      Our Sun is made up of elements left over from the Big Bang that formed from dying stars and the creation of supernovae. Pretty cool! It’s mainly hydrogen (74%) and helium (about 24%), with a little bit of iron, nickel, oxygen (1 %), silicon, sulfur, magnesium, carbon, neon, calcium and chromium thrown in too.

    • Photo: Wei Xun

      Wei Xun answered on 21 Jun 2011:

      The sun probably started out life as dust clouds and gases scattered in space, at some point gravity makes the gases and dust collapse into themselves, and form a rough, hot, gas ball. Inside the hottest part of this ball, two hydrogen atoms collide into each other so fast that they are fused to produce an atom of helium, and the “spare” energy is released as heat and light. The helium can also under go this reaction to form other heavier elements, but the chain reaction stops dead at iron as when iron fuses it needs energy instead of releasing it. Anything heavier were produced when a star blows up like in a supernova, which get incorporated in new stars and planets etc.

      So the elements that make up you and me and everything on earth came from the sun and the stars!

    • Photo: Rebecca Handley

      Rebecca Handley answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Gas! As the others have said its a giant, super-heated gas ball. Its unlike Earth, in that it doesnt have a solid outer layer, so it even if it wasnt 15 million degrees Celsius you still couldnt stand on its surface!

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