• Question: How does the sun give us energy to power our electricity?

    Asked by CharlotteW to Hugh, Heather, Helen, Jane, Julian on 16 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by 652spaa38.
    • Photo: Hugh Osborn

      Hugh Osborn answered on 16 Nov 2014:

      The Sun is a giant nuclear reactor. Every second more than 600 tonnes of hydrogen is turned into 596 tonnes of helium and 4 tonnes of pure energy! That energy is in the form of light and streams out of the sun in all directions. A tiny proportion of that light hits Earth and can be turned into other useful stuff like directly to electricity (in solar panels) or to create organic molecules (in plants).

    • Photo: Julian Onions

      Julian Onions answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      Hugh has answered this pretty fully, but I’ll throw in a couple of extra facts.
      As well as sending out light, which is formed in the very centre of the sun, and takes nearly a million years to work its way out, the reactions also give off neutrinos, that hardly ever run into anything. So they come whizzing out of the Sun, and into space in just a few seconds. So many are produced, that about a trillion of them pass through your thumb nail, and every other part of your body every second, but they hardly ever do anything.

    • Photo: Helen Johnson

      Helen Johnson answered on 19 Nov 2014:

      Think the boys have got this covered 😉
      Philae, the little probe that landed on the surface of a comet last week, was meant to be solar powered but it landed in a part with too much shadow.

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