TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – Bintang is a beautiful celestial object if it shines and is seen at night. But, have you ever asked why stars shine?
Reporting from Universe Todayall stars, including the sun, are hot balls of plasma shining held together by their own gravitational attraction.
The gravity of stars is very strong. Stars are constantly compressing inward. As a result of this gravitational friction, the inside becomes hotter. For example, the surface temperature of the Sun is around 5,800 Kelvin, but in its core, the temperature can reach 15 million Kelvin.
The very high pressure and temperature at the center of a star allows nuclear fusion reactions to occur there. This is the place for hydrogen atoms to combine and turn into helium atoms through several processes.
This process produces enormous amounts of energy in the form of gamma rays. These gamma rays are trapped in the star and they exert an outward pressure that counteracts the star’s gravitational pull. That’s why stars stay the same size and don’t shrink.
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Gamma rays travel within the star and are constantly trying to escape. They will be absorbed by one atom and then re-emitted. This event can occur repeatedly in one second. Additionally, a single photon can take 100,000 years to reach the star’s surface from its center.
After reaching the surface, these photons have reduced some of their energy so that they turn into visible light photons, no longer gamma ray photons as they were in the beginning. These photons then move away from the surface of the Sun and move straight towards space. They can continue moving indefinitely if they do not collide with other objects.
Reporting from Learning AstronomyIn the sun, the sun’s core changes hydrogen to helium. This change process is referred to as the main sequence. This process is the first step that occurs inside every star. Actually, in this process there is an excess of energy according to the equation E=mc2.
This happens because the mass of the combined hydrogen is greater than the mass of the final product, namely helium. Therefore, mass is converted into a form of energy and this energy is tangible electromagnetic radiation light that radiates from the sun.
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2023-10-11 02:45:00
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