By: Tsegazeab Beteselassie
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| The Sun: This is what the sun looks like (with glare protection, probably). |
Most people know that the sun was born 4.57 billion years ago. But what I was thinking was, about an important property of light, that actually might make the birth of the sun a few million years back. But before I explain my theory, I have to explain how the sun was born.
When a star dies, usually what happens is that stars start to shed it's outer layers. For many years, scientists didn't know why. Then, a person named Emanuel Swedenborg first proposed a theory that stars were formed by nebula's in space. You probably want to know what a nebula is. Well, it's when a large mass of atoms form a cloud in interstellar space. One of the most distinguishing facts about nebula's is that they are created by the death throes of a dying star.
When a star starts dying, it means that the core of the star has started to make iron. But how does a flaming mass of hydrogen create an element like iron? Well, here's how.
First, when the star is born, it immediately starts fusing together hydrogen to make helium. The reason it does this immediately is sort of part of my theory. When the star gives out light, it means that it is fusing hydrogen together to make helium. But we don't know it's ready until it gives out light, don't we? Well, anyways, the heat forces repelling hydrogen atoms to fuse to helium. Helium's mass is less that it should be because some of the mass is converted into energy, some of it as, light, the rest, heat. This small observation is crucial to why a star dies at a certain element. Anyways, this process isn't supposed to get past helium, because we still have enough hydrogen. But what happens when we run out?
