AST 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Atomic Nucleus, Current Source, Red Giant

• School: Syracuse University
• Department: Astronomy
• Course: AST 101
• Professor: Walter Freeman

Document Summary

The sun: we"ve explained the solar spectrum now: The hot innards of the sun emit blackbody radiation because of their temperature. The answer is nuclear fusion a nuclear reaction involving building larger nuclei out of smaller ones. The inside of the sun is so hot, and under such terrific pressure, that all of the electrons are torn off of their atoms; for this discussion, we"re going to be thinking only about the nuclei of these atoms. Since like charges repel, if two protons get near each other, they will violently repel each other. It takes a tremendous amount of heat and pressure to overcome this. However, this amount of heat and pressure is found in the heart of the sun, where the temperature reaches 15 million kelvin (or. Well, if you can overcome the electric repulsion and bring them very close together, then there is an attractive nuclear force that will then hold them together.