Recipe for sunshine



Start by taking two protons (nuclei of hydrogen).
Heat them up so that they are hot (really hot).

Heat them up so that they are
hot enough
that they are moving fast enough
that just occasionally they get close enough
that the strong short-range nuclear force can lock them together.

(This takes a lot of heat.)

But when this does eventually happen
one of those protons can turn into a neutron
and two particles called a positron and a neutrino come flying out.
And the remaining proton and neutron
join together to make an isotope of hydrogen called deuterium.
(About 1/7000th of the Hydrogen in water is actually deuterium.)

Getting the two protons together takes a long time - so be patient.
But once the deuterium has been made everything else will happen almost by itself.

Add another proton and it will join up with the deuterium
turning it into a helium3 nucleus and a photon comes flying out.

Mix 2 of these Helium3s together and they can stick to make a Helium4 nucleus
(otherwise known as an alpha particle - as in alpha, beta and gamma radiation - if you studied school physics)
and a couple of protons come flying out.

This whole process produces energy (a lot of energy).
Some of the energy can be put back into the whole business of getting
the two protons together in the first place (which we started with).

And some of it can be used to make star-light.

And some of it,
when we get up in the morning,
and feel it on our faces,
or when we lie by the side of the Mediterranean on a warm late summer afternoon,

we will get to call sun-shine.



Poetry by Andrew Bindon
Read 555 times
Written on 2009-12-08 at 13:47

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