Table of Contents
- 1 What elements make up most of the Suns mass?
- 2 What element makes up about 24% of the sun’s mass?
- 3 What is the main composition of the sun?
- 4 What is the most abundant element in a star?
- 5 What elements are created in stars?
- 6 How old is the Sun and what is it made of?
- 7 What makes up most of the gas in the Sun?
What elements make up most of the Suns mass?
Abundance of elements
| Element | Abundance (pct. of total number of atoms) | Abundance (pct. of total mass) |
|---|---|---|
| Hydrogen | 91.2 | 71.0 |
| Helium | 8.7 | 27.1 |
| Oxygen | 0.078 | 0.97 |
| Carbon | 0.043 | 0.40 |
What two molecules make up the majority of the sun’s mass?
The Sun’s Composition Two elements make up the overwhelming majority of the sun’s matter, by mass: hydrogen (about 70 percent) and helium (about 28 percent).
What element makes up about 24% of the sun’s mass?
The sun is comprised of about 75% by mass of hydrogen and 24% of helium. The remaining one percent is made up of all the heavier elements.
What gasses make up the sun?
Instead, the sun is composed of layers made up almost entirely of hydrogen and helium. These gases carry out different functions in each layer, and the sun’s layers are measured by their percentage of the sun’s total radius.
What is the main composition of the sun?
hydrogen
The Sun is a huge ball of hydrogen and helium held together by its own gravity.
What are the heavier elements formed during star formation?
After the hydrogen in the star’s core is exhausted, the star can fuse helium to form progressively heavier elements, carbon and oxygen and so on, until iron and nickel are formed. Up to this point, the fusion process releases energy. The formation of elements heavier than iron and nickel requires an input of energy.
What is the most abundant element in a star?
No one mechanism can account for all the elements; rather, several distinct processes occurring at different epochs during the late evolution of a star have been proposed. After hydrogen, helium is the most abundant element.
How many elements are there in the sun?
About 67 chemical elements have been detected in the sun. I’m sure you’re not surprised that hydrogen is the most abundant element, accounting for over 90% of the atoms and over 70% of solar mass. The next most abundant element is helium, which accounts for almost just under 9% of the atoms and about 27% of the mass.
What elements are created in stars?
Stars create new elements in their cores by squeezing elements together in a process called nuclear fusion. First, stars fuse hydrogen atoms into helium. Helium atoms then fuse to create beryllium, and so on, until fusion in the star’s core has created every element up to iron.
What are the elements that make up the Sun?
(Beginner) What elements make up the Sun (eg. iron oxygen….etc)? The predominant element in the Sun is hydrogen, and then helium: by mass, it is 70% hydrogen, 28% helium, 1.5% carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, and 0.5% all other elements (iron, nickel and a few lighter elements).
How old is the Sun and what is it made of?
The Sun is 4.5 billion years old and has converted about half of the hydrogen in its core into helium. It still has about 5 billion years before the hydrogen runs out. Meanwhile, elements heavier than helium form in the Sun’s core.
Where do elements heavier than helium form in the Sun?
Meanwhile, elements heavier than helium form in the Sun’s core. They form in the convection zone, which is the outermost layer of the solar interior. Temperatures in this region are cool enough that the atoms have enough energy to hold their electrons. This makes the convection zone darker or more opaque,…
What makes up most of the gas in the Sun?
The sun is a big ball of gas and plasma. Most of the gas — 91 percent — is hydrogen. It is converted into energy in the sun’s core.