ANSWERS: 2
  • Fairly simply put, nuclear fusion reactions happen in the core of the Sun. This fusion reaction fuses six hydrogen atom nuclei (just protons) into one helium atom plus two energetic protons. The mass of the one helium atom + the two protons is somewhat less than the total of the four hydrogen atoms that were fused to make it. This "extra" mass is converted into other particles (positrons, neutrinos and gamma rays) and kinetic energy. The kinetic energy, positron, and gamma ray energy is slowly absorbed and transferred to the surface of the sun as heat. This heat causes the the surface of the Sun to be at about 5500 degrees Kelvin... white hot, in other words, and that's where the Sunlight comes from. A very small portion of the light that's emitted by the Sun reaches Earth. So, through a fairly long chain of events, fusion energy resulting from the loss of the mass is converted to Sunlight.
  • Hydrogen Hellium conversion

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