If there's no oxygen in space, then how can the sun be burning?

Question

Fire needs oxygen in order for it to burn right? Then how can the sun be burning since there isn't any air in space?

Answer 1

Because the sun is like a nuclear fision or fusion reactor. Whatever one puts out its own energy

Answer 2

Simple. The sun isn't on fire. It is a big ball of nuclear fusion. Energy is being turned into mass, and mass is being destroyed, and it is basically a big ball of chemical reactions.

Answer 3

The sun and outer space are two different places!!

Answer 4

it fussion of durtronium and tritium into helium and other elements that make the sun seem like it is burning  but it isn't  

Answer 5

because there is oxygen inside the sun that makes the fire

Answer 6

A lot of wrong answers.

The sun is not burning, which is a chemical reaction with oxygen.

The heat from the sun is due to a nuclear reaction. It's like a hydrogen bomb exploding...

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Answer 7

The "fire" in/on the sun is created by a chemical reaction between hydrogen and helium so it requires no oxygen

Answer 8

Strictly speaking, the sun does not burn. At least, not the way that, say, a wick on a candle does. The small fires we're all familiar with are created by a chemical reaction betweena fuel, such as oil or coal, and oxygen. The sun's writhing surface is the result of "a nuclear reaction that fuses hydrogen to form helium," saus Jerald Navratil, a physicist at Columbia University.

Hydrogen is the primary constituent of the sun's core. The tremendous amount of energy from fusion creates temperatures as hot as 1,000,000

Answer 9

The sun isn't burning, it's a star. DUH. It has its own fuel.

Answer 10

1.  Fire doesn't need oxygen.  It needs an oxidizer.  Oxygen is just material that can work as an oxidizer. In the Oklahoma City Bombing, the oxidizer was ammonium nitrate fertilizer.

2.  The sun doesn't burn.  It is fusing hydrogen into helium.  

Answer 11

The Sun burns because it is powered by nuclear fusion in its core.

When hydrogen is fused into helium, mass is converted into energy.  

Answer 12

>Fire needs oxygen in order for it to burn right?

That's correct.

>Then how can the sun be burning since there isn't any air in space?

First, the Sun isn't any more 'in space' than the Earth is. Despite being surrounded by a vacuum, the Earth can have fires on its surface because it has both molecular oxygen and combustible fuel available within its own mass. There is no reason the Sun could not also have both oxygen and fuel on its surface. In reality, the Sun does have small amounts of oxygen (as well as a huge amount of combustible hydrogen), but I don't think it's molecular oxygen (O2) nor is it present in large enough quantities to support burning for very long.

The real answer you're looking for is that the Sun does not shine through burning the way a fire burns. The Sun's energy, including the light we see from it, comes from a nuclear fusion reaction, the same kind of reaction that occurs inside a hydrogen bomb when it is detonated. In the Sun, a process occurs by which hydrogen atoms are fused to create helium atoms, releasing energy in the process. The vast amount of hydrogen in the Sun allows the fusion reaction to continue for billions of years, where a chemical fire would last perhaps a few thousand years at best. You can read more about the Sun's fusion 'burning' here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fus...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun#Core

Answer 13

The sun isn't burning as in combustion. It is burning as in nuclear fusion.

Answer 14

it's an atomic thing. the sun isn't really burning the way we call things 'burning'. oxygen isn't even involved. we're talking millions of degrees here, temperatures you get from atomic fusion. plasmas are hot too, search it and you'll find some kewl stuff. they use plasmas to cut metals and stuff, no oxygen required, and they are only in the hundreds of thousands of degrees.

Answer 15

There may not be oxygen in space but who says there isn't oxygen on the surface of the sun?  The surface of the sun wouldn't be "in space."

Answer 16

There's oxygen on the sun.

Answer 17

There is no burning (combustion). Nuclear fusion is causing the extreme temperature and its light output, and requires no oxygen.

Answer 18

because the sun's burning in space is because of fusion in the center of it's core since the extreme pressures turn hydrogen to helium and cause light and heat, even if the Earth only get a very small amount of it, i think it's 1/billion of the sun's heat.

Answer 19

there is not oxygen on the sun! there is not chemical reaction between hydrogen and helium! the sun runs on thermonuclear fusion.

ok essentially, you dont need fire for something to be hot, i trust you know that. you just need friction. the sun is made of mostly hydrogen, massive massive amounts of it. its gravity is so strong that it is constantly trying to collapse the sun. that creates friction and pressure, and therefore heat. that gets the hydrogen atoms moving so fast that they can actually smash together with other hydrogen atoms. when than happens, a little mass is given off as energy. the sun smashes 4 hydrogen atoms together, in a series of steps, to create helium and in the process it releases 4 photons. so thats where the sun gets its energy.

Answer 20

the Sun does not "burn", like we think of logs in a fire or paper burning. a process called nuclear fusion is taking place inside the sun's core, thus resulting to its glowing and also it is a big ball of gas. Nuclear fusion occurs when one proton smashes into another proton so hard that they stick together...and release some energy as well. This energy then heats up the other materials (other protons and electrons and such) nearby. This heating eventually grows out from the center (or core) of the star to the outside, finally leaving the surface and radiating out into space to be the heat and light we know stars emit.

People, including scientists, sometimes say that the Sun "burns hydrogen" to make it glow. But that is just a figure of speech. Hydrogen really doesn't burn, it fuses, into helium. So no oxygen is required! remember not only oxygen can support combustion.  

Answer 21

The sun is a hot mass of gas

Answer 22

The sun is not a ball of fire. It is a ball of hydrogen gas that is being continuously fused into helium. The release of energy from that process makes what looks like fire, but actually isn't. No air is required for the process to happen.

Answer 23

You are thinking of combustion.

The sun goes under radioactive fission as hydrogen and helium burn up.

The sun only needs intensive pressures that are millions of times stronger than many atomic/ hydrogen bombs..

The sun does not need oxygen.

Answer 24

it's not actually "burning" but it's plasma reacting with... oooo you'll learn about it in science

Answer 25

The Sun radiates energy as a result of the conversion of the element Hydrogen into the element Helium through the use of high temperature and high pressure in the core of the Sun.  The Sun doesn't actually "burn" but it is hot.  The nuclei of four Hydrogen atoms literally fuse together to form a nucleus of one Helium atom.  Every second 700 million tons of hydrogen are converted into helium.  This reaction is the same reaction that is used in the "Hydrogen Bomb."

n 1939, Hans Bethe described a quantitative theory explaining the fusion generation of energy in the stars, including our sun. The results of his calculations presented in a paper entitled "Energy Production in Stars,'' won him the Nobel prize for Physics in 1968.

The surface of the sun is about 6,000 C and the center of the sun is about 20,000,000 C.  The pressure in the center of the Sun is about 340,000,000,000 Earth atmospheres.  The sun radiates its heat as a "black body radiator" which just means the different wavelengths of light given off correspond to such a radiator.

At several research facilities around the world scientists are working to create controlled energy from nuclear fusion.  Currently the record was established in 1997.  The JET facility established the world record for fusion power producing 16 MW of power. The machine used is called a Tokamak.  The next phase will be carried out at a facility called ITER.

Answer 26

Good point.

Answer 27

Although there is very very little oxygen in the empty vacuum of space, there is plenty of oxygen is the sun itself (along with hydrogen).

Answer 28

The sun is PLASMA, which does not need oxygen. Stars are all PLASMA made.

Answer 29

What grade are you in?

The sun is not fire, it is a fusion reaction, similar to what happens with an atom bomb (fission).

Fusion involves compressing hydrogen atoms, through gravity, to the point where they are colliding with each other at such high speeds, they emit heat, light and radiation, and fuse into a helium molecule.

Christ, we learned this in 5th grade.  Are you old enough to be on Yahoo?

Answer 30

The sun isn't burning oxygen.  It works by nuclear fusion.  It is fusing hydrogen into helium with huge emission of energy, including heat and light.