For centuries, even after knowing that the sun was a star like any other, we still didn’t know what it was done. Cecilia Payne changed that.
Within the sun, the most powerful energy source for several light years in all directions, an incredible process occurs. Deep in its nucleus, hundreds of thousands of kilometers below the edge of its photograph, temperatures exceed a critical threshold of four million degrees, increasing up to a maximum of 15 million k in its center. Under these conditions, hydrogen atoms, and specifically, the nuclei of hydrogen atoms, crush each other, which makes their quantum wave functions overlap. Although these collisions are extremely frequent, more often they simply bounce with each other, without creating a significant and energy -liberating reaction.
But from time to time, this results in a nuclear fusion reaction, where the result of heavy isotopes (such as Deuterium or Tritium) or even heavier elements (such as Helium-3 or Helium-4). These heavier isotopes and elements are more energetically stable than naked protons on their own, and as a result of these reactions, energy is released. We take for granted, today, that this is the process that not only drives the sun, but almost all stars (that is, each star in the main sequence) in the universe.
It seems difficult to imagine it now, but only 100 years ago, we not only did not know about this process at all, but we didn’t even know what the sun is made (and all stars): hydrogen and helium. How do we find out? That is the work of the astronomer Cecilia Payne, whose doctoral dissertation celebrates her centenary this year: in 2025. This is how this brilliant scientist showed us what the most common light object is made in the universe and with it, how the stars really work.
Since Newton’s time, we know that the sun had to be very, very massive: about 300,000 times more massive than planet Earth. Because it is known that the sun is 93 million miles (150 million km) from us …
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