The energy radiated by the Sun is produced during the conversion of hydrogen (H) atoms to helium (He). The Sun is at least 90 percent hydrogen by number of atoms, so the fuel is readily available. Since one hydrogen atom weighs 1.0078 atomic mass units and a single helium atom weighs 4.0026, the conversion of four hydrogen atoms to one helium atom yields 0.0294 mass unit, which are all converted to energy, 6.8 million electron volts (MeV, 1 MeV = 1.6 × 10−6 erg), in the form of gamma (γ) rays or the kinetic energy of the products. If all ...(100 of 10749 words)