Stars are wierd?

Question

Just looking at stars, and it seems that the greatest force would be at the center of the core of the star and that would be the origin of the initial nuclear reaction which would naturally just spread out from there. I think i heard something about the mass or gravity (same thing) being the limiting factor in star diameters somewhere. So assuming thats true and a star is burning from the inside out: are stars surrounded by a cloud of whatever fuel its burning? So that the "star" that we see is actually just the inner most part of the whole star (the core) that is engaged in nuclear reactions and giving off the light? I would think that that bright core would be relatively small to actual size of the ball of gas that would have to fuel it.

I think of these things sometimes and just run on here and ask and THEN go to some site that tells me about whatever. So I'm gonna go read something like that but I like to get other peoples thoughts. (I dont believe anything i read w/o proof)

Answer 1

The star does have a corona, which you don't see except during a solar eclipse.  But it's not like you described, the energy is so great that the whole star glows, and you see most of it.  The star is it's own fuel, and it's nuclear reactions occur due to the weight of it's own gravity.

Answer 2

yes but stars are continue trying to collapse on it self and the reactions inside are pushing outwards as this reaction continues it produces heaver elements starting with nitrogen and so on a star dose have an aura and solar flares are created when the balance is uneven between the colaps and the reaction inside and the reaction is stronger than the colaps when the colaps is stronger then the star dies i wrote a long report last year about stars and there life as a very smart freshman at science any way i would give you the report but my teacher kept it to use as an example and it had sources but i don't have them now sorry well thats just some things i did it on hope it helped email me if you have any questions

Answer 3

The nuclear fusion reaction inside stars requires a very high temperature and a very high density in order to happen---it's not like a fire burning fuel, it's a nuclear reaction that only happens when the gas is extremely hot and extremely dense.

The right conditions for nuclear reactions only happen in the centers of stars, and the nuclear reaction is self-limiting: if it starts to go faster, the added energy makes the density go down and the reaction stops.  So there is only a little, slow reaction just at the center and the rest of the star doesn't react at all.  It takes 9 billion years for a star like the Sun just to react all the hydrogen in the core; the outer parts of the star don't react at all.

Answer 4

What you've said is mostly true.  The core is where fusion is taking place, but it doesn't spread out like a fire would.  The fusion is the direct result of the pressure at the core.  For smaller stars, that region of fusion is pretty small, as you say, and as would be expected.  In larger stars, it is believed that different levels of fusion are occurring at different layers going out from the center.  In other words, the hydrogen fusion that's going on in the sun would be happening at an outer core layer.  Inside that would be pressure great enough for the next higher level of fusion, and so on.  The largest stars may have several layers of different kinds of fusion going on.  Extreme convection currents keep the core supplied with new fuel.

We are not seeing the part of the sun that is doing the fusion.  The reason it is so bright is because the gases are very hot.  Hot gases iridesce.  What you're seeing *is* the surrounding ball of gas which fuels the core.  There is very little mass outside of the photosphere.  No, it isn't dark matter or missing matter that provides the force which makes the surface glow.

Surface disturbances are the result of concentrations of magnetic fields interacting with ionized gases.

Answer 5

The nuclear fusion that occurs at the sun goes from the simple Hydrogen and makes it into Helium. All the sun is mostly Hydrogen an a bit of Helium; so the sun is it's own "fuel". After all the hydrogen has been spent, the process goes from Helium to Lithium, and so on through the periodic table until you reach Iron. Once Iron has been reached, the nuclear process becomes unstable and it stops; thats when the sun becomes a red giant, followed by a white dwarf.