Chemistry of Stars

Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting NetworkChemistry ConnectionsChemistry of the SunEpisode #13  Segment 1: Introduction to Fusion in the SunWelcome to chemistry connections, my name is Tyler LongoAnd I am Sathya Kummarapurugu, and we are your hosts for episode #13. Today we will be discussing the processes that take place in the sun, through a chemistry-focused lensBefore a star is born there are clouds of dust in the area it will be formed. When clouds of dust begin to be pulled together by the force of gravity gaseous stars begin to be formedAs gravity drags these gas particles together making stars, the temperature in the core increases to very high temperatures. As the amount of thermal energy in the core increases the temperature also increases. As temperature increases the avg kinetic energy in the sun’s core increases, and according to the equation KE=0.5mv2 as Kinetic energy increases the velocity of the hydrogen atoms in the core increases. According to the collision theory, when a particle collides with another particle with enough activation energy, a bond may form, releasing energy. So since the temperature is so high, does that mean that the Hydrogen atoms within these stars begin to collide and form a bond?Technically, since hydrogen particles are protons, two protons coming close together have a repulsive force between them by Columbus law since both protons are positively charged and particles with the same charge repel each other. Columb’s law states that objects of the same charge repel each other and objects of opposing charge attract each other. This attraction(electrostaticforce) and repulsion are directly proportional to the distance between the particles and charge magnitude. But the strong nuclear force overcomes the repulsive force and the two protons bind togetherThat’s really only the first step of the process in which hydrogen atoms become helium atoms through fusion. It’s actually a multistep process called a proton-proton chain reactionSo how it works is first, two hydrogen atoms collide together through the power of this force called the strong nuclear force. These are basically just protons. A proton is composed of an up, up, and down quark. These are one of the fundamental particles of the universeSo when the weak force is applied, this causes an up quark to become a down quark, thus changing the two of the particles from protons to neutronsYeah, There are also 4 other fundamental quarks: strange quarks, charm quarks, top quarks, and bottom quarks. What’s important is that up quarks have a charge of +2/3 and down quarks have a charge of -1/3, which means when two ups and one down come together to form a proton, it has a total charge of +1. Likewise, since a neutron has one up and two downs, it has a charge of 0These quarks make up the fundamental...