What happens in a hydrogen bomb explosion?
In a hydrogen bomb explosion, hydrogen atoms are subjected to collision under tremendous pressure, resulting in their being merged or fused to from element helium. In the process, also called fusion reaction, large quantities of energy area released in the form of heat, light, X-rays, microwaves, gamma rays etc.
At what rate is the hydrogen being consumed in the nuclear reactions taking place in the Sun?
About six hundred million tons of hydrogen is consumed per second.
Has the hydrogen fusion reaction started in Jupiter, the largest planet in the Solar System?
Some astronomers believe that the hydrogen fusion reaction occurs within Jupiter’s core because Jupiter radiates more heat than can be accounted for by conventional explanations. However, Jupiter does not have enough mass to glow and needs to be over a hundred times larger than it is now become a star.
How is the tremendous pressure created in the Sun for sustaining the fusion reaction continuously?
Hydrogen will convert to helium only under tremendous pressure. Such pressures can be sustained in laboratories on the earth only for a brief instant during which a hydrogen bomb explosion takes place for as fraction of a second.
However, the Sun sustains this pressure continuously and so the explosion is continuous. Due to the enormous gravity of the Sun, the pressure inside the Sun is about 100 billion times the pressure of the earth’s atmosphere and is sufficient to sustain a continuous fusion reaction.
Why the diameter of the Sun relativity is steady and why is its mass not scattered as in a normal explosion?
The large mass of the Sun creates tremendous gravity which forces all the mass towards the centre of the Sun. The centre of the Sun is subject to tremendous heat and pressure, enough to sustain a continuous hydrogen bomb explosion. The explosion acts as an outward force throwing the mass away from the centre of the Sun while the gravity of the Sun acts as an inward force pushing back the mass towards the centre of the Sun. If the two forces are in equilibrium, the Sun would neither expand nor contract. This is what is actually happening. Hence, the Sun’s size does not change appreciably.