is the sun a solid cause its so heavy i doubt its just gas?

Question

if i were to extinguish the sun completely would there be nothing left or would it be solid inside?, i cant imagine the sun having so much mass yet only being.. fire and gas

Answer 1

The Sun is a mixture of gases - approximately 75% hydrogen and 25% helium. These proportions are changing over time as reactions in the Sun's core convert hydrogen into helium. It’s the energy released by these reactions which produces the Sun's heat. At the Sun's core, where the temperature is 15 million kelvin, the gases are compressed by gravity to a density many times that of lead. While this gravity tries to shrink the core, the Sun is kept in equilibrium by the counterbalancing force of the energy released as the hydrogen burns.



Plasma is a phase of matter, its properties are different from that os solid, gas, and liquid.... hope this helps.

Answer 2

Pretend that you could cool everything down and allow it to collapse. It would be a very cold white dwarf star.



The pressure at the core would be powerful enough to cause fusion and restart the star. You would probably end up with mostly carbon with some other elements like oxygen, nitrogen and neon, with an outer layer of hydrogen and helium.



But I am going to ignore that new fusion and just look at the hydrogen and helium.



Hydrogen at high enough pressures will turn into a metal. Helium to the best of our knowledge will always remain a liquid, but it could change into a superfluid (temperature has to be low enough).



But more interesting is that the pressure in the collapsed sun would be sufficient to cause electron degeneracy. This means that the atom structure would collapse under the pressure and the electrons would occupy quantum positions. Kind'a like that old plum pudding model of matter. This is a very dense state of matter. The next step would be the collapse into a neutron star via electron capture.



So, what you would have is a core of electron degenerate hydrogen and helium. This would be a quasi-solid. As you proceed towards the surface you would find a layer of solid metalic hydrogen and liquid helium. As you get closer to the surface the hydrogen would turn to liquid. Once reaching the surface, you would have a small, dense atmosphere



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If you are just interested in what is currently in the sun's core, it is a hot, dense plasma -- which is really an ionized gas, but is so compressed that it is denser than a liquid. (It is compressed, but it is not an electron degenerency state which is much denser)

Answer 3

There probably are some elements in the sun that aren't hydrogen and/or helium.... but, most of the sun is hydrogen. At it's center is a core about the size of the moon or mercury, right now, that is metallic helium - this is the product of the sun's process. This core will grow as the sun ages, until finally, there's not enough hydrogen left to keep the reaction going. 0 degrees Kelvin is absolute zero. You can't get any colder than this, and its... 473 degrees below zero celcius, (if memory serves...) So, 15 million kelvin or 14,999,500 celcius is the sun's internal core temperature.

Answer 4

The sun is a ball of gas that is burning through fusion reactions. Though as you near its core the gas gets incredibly dense and hot, it is still gas...not a solid. Actually in order to be a solid the sun would have to be near absolute zero, like 460 degrees below zero Fahrenheit because that's the freezing point of helium (and hydrogen is right above it). The fusion reactions in the sun keep it at millions of degrees.

Answer 5

Are you trying to say that gases don't hold the mass or much mass? You are wrong, Gases hold mass and they get very heavy. Plus they can be compressed so lots of mass can be held in little volume which makes the container of a gas even heavier.

Answer 6

I am very interested in space. The sun is made up of .."mostly hydrogen and helium, with a small amount of carbon,nitrogen, oxygen, and a smattering of heavy metals".

So the sun is mostly gas, but the "heavy metals" in it's composition, make it a solid.

Also, if you pay attention in..oh..9th grade or so..you should learn that the sun also contains rocks larger than the earth that helped form it in the first place.

Answer 7

The sun is plasma. It's too hot to be solid, especially the center of the sun. Look up what plasma is - ionized gas.

Answer 8

The Sun entirely gas. Mainly plasma, which isn't actually a completely gaseous substance (I believe). It's so massive because of just that; it's enormous.

Answer 9

Yes the the sun is all gas but scientists beleive that in the core the hydrogen is so compressed that it may become solid

Answer 10

Gas also has weight as its matter. Its a ball of gases. Hydrogen to Helium conversion is done there.

Answer 11

its compacted gas, which means that it is still heavy. It has the same mass as it would if it were solid. like that riddle. which is harder to carry? 100 pounds of feathers or a 100 pound rock? They are the same weight just different density.

Answer 12

+Yes, the sun is entirely gas; primarily hydrogen and helium.

Answer 13

Technically, its plasma, ionized gas.



It is very, very dense gas. It is under immense pressure, but it is also extremely hot.