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Which Gas Makes Up Most of the Sun?

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Quick Answer

Hydrogen constitutes about 73 % of the Sun's mass.

The Full Story

The Sun is composed of approximately 73 % hydrogen and 25 % helium by mass, with the remaining 2 % consisting of heavier elements like oxygen, carbon, neon, and iron. In its core, hydrogen nuclei fuse into helium at temperatures of about 15 million °C, releasing the energy that powers the Sun. The Sun converts roughly 600 million tonnes of hydrogen into helium every second. After about 5 billion more years, the Sun will exhaust its core hydrogen and expand into a red giant.

Key Facts

1.The Sun has been fusing hydrogen for about 4.6 billion years.
2.Each second, about 4 million tonnes of mass are converted to energy via E = mc².
3.Helium was first discovered on the Sun (via spectroscopy in 1868) before being found on Earth.

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Suggested video title for this topic:

"Powered by Hydrogen — The Chemistry of the Sun"