What happens during hydrogen fusion?

Fusion is the process that powers the sun and the stars. It is the reaction in which two atoms of hydrogen combine together, or fuse, to form an atom of helium. In the process some of the mass of the hydrogen is converted into energy.

What is released through nuclear fusion in stars?

Nuclear Fusion reactions power the Sun and other stars. In a fusion reaction, two light nuclei merge to form a single heavier nucleus. The process releases energy because the total mass of the resulting single nucleus is less than the mass of the two original nuclei. The leftover mass becomes energy.

What is the source of the energy released in fission and fusion reactions?

Nuclear binding energy is the energy required to keep the protons and neutrons of a nucleus intact, and the energy that is released during a nuclear fission or fusion is nuclear power.

What happens to helium after nuclear fusion?

The internal core collapses, and heats up, until it is hot enough to fuse helium into larger atoms, for instance, by combining three helium atoms into carbon. At this same time, some helium will fuse with that carbon to produce oxygen.

What is the nuclear energy released when a kg of hydrogen is fused completely to helium?

630 trillion joules
Four hydrogen nuclei can be fused together into a helium nucleus, accompanied by the release of energy: 4H -> He + energy. Fusing one kilogram of hydrogen into helium releases 630 trillion joules of energy.

Does hydrogen fusion create energy?

Hydrogen fusion is the most abundant form of energy production in the universe.

How much energy is released from a single fusion of hydrogen into helium?

A helium nucleus has a mass that is 0.7% less than that of four hydrogen nuclei; this lost mass is converted into energy during the fusion. This reaction produces about 3.6 × 1011 kJ of energy per mole of He42 produced.

How do stars fuse hydrogen into helium?

As it glows, hydrogen is converted into helium in the core by nuclear fusion. The core starts to become unstable and it starts to contract. The outer shell of the star, which is still mostly hydrogen, starts to expand. As it expands, it cools and starts to glow red.

What is the energy released in a nuclear reaction called?