Star Power

Have you ever gazed at the sky and wondered about the brilliance of the Sun or the twinkling of stars in the night sky?

The Sun appears brighter than other stars because it is closer to Earth. However, some stars located farther away from Earth may actually produce more energy than the Sun.

Stars begin their life in massive clouds of gas and dust called nebulae. Gravity pulls the gas and dust together, increasing pressure and temperature until nuclear fusion begins.

Nuclear fusion requires high energy but releases even more once it begins.

This reaction creates energy in stars, where intense pressure and temperature in their cores cause hydrogen nuclei to fuse into a helium nucleus, releasing enormous energy.

Fusion reactions in the Sun's core keep it burning, as the enormous mass of hydrogen and helium creates the extreme conditions needed to sustain this process.

Particle accelerators, like SLAC in California and CERN in Switzerland, collide particles at high speeds to help scientists understand nuclear fusion and atom formation in the early Universe.