The survival of all things cannot do without energy. Whether it is plants, animals or other simple life, their survival needs energy to support. The earth is a world of life rich in species. In addition to intelligent life humans, there are more than millions of various species.
So how does the energy needed for life on earth come from? Except for a small part of the energy inside the earth, most of it comes from the sun above us. For people in ancient times, it was not clear what the sun was. In the eyes of the ancients, the sun was sacred and a great existence without anyone, so many legends about the sun were born.
After entering the age of technology, with the help of technology, we began to constantly recognize the earth and the world outside the earth. At this time, we finally figured out what the sun is? In fact, the sun is not mysterious. It is very common in the universe. It is a celestial body in the universe just like the earth, but because of its very large mass, it has become a star that can release huge energy.
The existence of the sun has the solar system. The main source of energy in the entire solar system is the stellar sun. The formation of the earth’s ecosystem, the birth of life, the evolution and survival are all inseparable from the energy of the sun. The energy release of the sun is actually a kind of combustion, but in our cognition, combustion requires oxygen and fuel, and it is often a short-term release of energy.
However, the burning time of the sun is very long. According to the research of scientists, the sun was formed 5 billion years ago, and it has been 5 billion years since it burned. According to solar quality standards, it can continue to burn for about 5 billion years. Why can the sun burn for 5 billion years without going out? What kind of fuel does it use?
The combustion of any substance requires fuel. Once the fuel is gone, this fueling process will end, and the same is true for the sun. Since the sun can burn for 5 billion years without extinction, its fuel must also be unique. Is this really the case?
In fact, the fuel needed for the sun to burn is very simple and universal, and it is hydrogen, which accounts for most of the elements in the universe. We all know that the universe originated from the Big Bang at the singularity 13.8 billion years ago. After the Big Bang, the universe was born. During this moment of energy release, elementary particles such as protons, neutrons, and electrons were gradually formed.
By 380,000 years after the Big Bang, the atomic structure was formed. At this time, most of the elements in the universe are hydrogen, accounting for 75%. The rest is almost all helium, and the other elements account for extremely small proportions, even less than 1%.
Even in the current universe, the proportion of hydrogen and helium is still 99%. Stars are the earliest celestial bodies born in the early universe. Therefore, the main material of stars is hydrogen, followed by helium. Celestial bodies composed of hydrogen and helium are actually very common in the universe. For example, gaseous planets such as Jupiter and Saturn in the solar system are mainly composed of hydrogen and helium.
The difference between stars and these gaseous planets is that they are more massive. When the mass reaches a certain level, ordinary celestial bodies will become combustible stars. And all these factors have a huge relationship with gravity, and everything in the universe is formed under the action of gravity.
Gravity is the real manipulator behind the universe. When the mass of the sun gets bigger and bigger, its gravitational force will also get bigger and bigger. When it reaches a certain critical point, gravity keeps squeezing itself, and the temperature of the sun’s core will get higher High, reaching the temperature of the nuclear fusion reaction. As a result, the core of the sun is activated and ignited to become a continuously operating controllable nuclear reactor.
In fact, for gas giant planets like Jupiter, their core is also solid hydrogen that is continuously squeezed by hydrogen under the action of gravity, but its mass cannot reach the level of igniting nuclear fusion inside the laser. Can exist as a gas giant planet.
Nuclear fusion is a very special combustion mode. It uses chemical reactions at the atomic level, which is completely different from ordinary material combustion. Therefore, the combustion of nuclear fusion does not require combustion-supporting gases such as oxygen, and only requires sufficient combustion of hydrogen nuclei to keep burning.
Since the mass of the sun is 330,000 times that of the earth, accounting for 99.86% of the mass of the entire solar system, the accumulation of hydrogen and helium in the sun is very sufficient, and enough hydrogen can keep the sun burning for 5 billion years without extinction. It can continue to burn for about 5 billion years.
Of course, nothing is endless. Although the hydrogen element of the sun is very abundant, there is still a day of exhaustion. After the solar hydrogen fuel is exhausted, the life of the sun will also come to an end. However, the exhaustion of hydrogen does not mean that the sun will be extinguished soon, but that it will continue to burn for at least tens of millions of years.
The nuclear fusion reaction inside the sun is a relatively complicated process. Nuclear fusion continuously consumes hydrogen and converts it into helium. When the hydrogen is consumed, the hydrogen-helium fusion ends. At this time, the nuclear fusion reaction will not stop, but will continue Helium continues to undergo fusion reactions as fuel and is transferred to other heavy elements.
In this process, the sun will also become unstable, and the surrounding matter will begin to expand and transform into a red giant star. When the helium fusion is over, the sun will enter the final stage, the outer material detaches, leaving the inner core to evolve into a white dwarf. The separated matter on the periphery of the sun contains a lot of heavy elements, which is also one of the sources of the heavy elements in the universe.
This shows how important stars are to the evolution of the universe. In addition to being important energy celestial bodies, they are also important element evolution factories. They can continuously evolve primitive elements such as hydrogen and helium into various heavy elements to enrich the universe. Elemental substance. Only when there are abundance of heavy elements, other events may evolve, such as the birth of life.
Stars have their own life cycles, ranging from tens of millions of years to tens of billions of years. The end of the sun 5 billion years later also means that the entire solar system will usher in the end. At that time, the earth wants to be alone and has no other way out except to leave the solar system. Staying in the solar system, the fate of the earth can only be destroyed, disappearing into the universe completely.
To allow the earth to leave the solar system freely, it takes a very powerful technological force to be able to do so. Fortunately, the time left by the sun for mankind is still very long. Billions of years are enough for mankind to develop to the advanced stage of civilization. At that time, mankind’s footsteps may have spread to every corner of the universe.