what happens to electrons in the sun?

[lemur]

Does gravity as strong as that of the sun or other star cause sub-atomic particles to separate and stratify the way solid, liquid, and gas do on Earth? Does gravity reach such a level of strength that it overcomes the force of electrostatic attraction, essentially ionizing all the atoms? If so, it would seem like the sun and other stars would have an atmosphere of negative charge as their outermost layer. Yet, I've never heard of the sun being surrounded by an "atmosphere" of static electricity. Why?

[swansont]

Ionization occurs because the sun is really, really hot. Atoms move fast and collide, and electrons can get knocked off. The scale of thermal energy is given by kT, where k is 8.6×10^−5 eV/K; at a million K (solar core is ~15 million), that's more than an eV and ionization energies are in the eV range. Thermal energies are in a distribution, so atoms can have several times the average.

[swansont]

!

Moderator Note

Question on solar fusion moved http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/55685-solar-fusion/

[steevey]

Ionization occurs because the sun is really, really hot. Atoms move fast and collide, and electrons can get knocked off. The scale of thermal energy is given by kT, where k is 8.6×10^−5 eV/K; at a million K (solar core is ~15 million), that's more than an eV and ionization energies are in the eV range. Thermal energies are in a distribution, so atoms can have several times the average.

 

Why aren't there electrons being fused in the core of the sun or making collisions with photons? Actually, what do you get when you fuse two electrons? Do you get one of those weird massive particles thats just like normal matter like an electron but more massive? Like a strange or charm quark, but I don't remember what the ones for electrons and protons are called.

Edited March 15, 2011 by steevey

[IM Egdall]

From Freedman & Kaufmann, Universe, Freeman & Co., Sixth Edition, p. 392:

" Hydrogen burning in the Sun usually takes place in three energy-releasing steps. (In the first step) two protons fuse to form a hydrogen isotope (nucleus) with one proton and one neutron, a nearly massless neutrino, and a positively charged electron (positron). This positron encounters an ordinary electron, annihilating both particles, and converting them into gamma ray photons."

 

So at least some of the electrons in the Sun's core collide with positrons produced in the fusion process. Their resultant annihilation produces some of the gamma rays which eventually result in the lower energy photons emitted from the Sun's surface as sunlight.

Edited March 15, 2011 by I ME

[lemur]

so the electrons don't just get displaced, they get transformed?

[swansont]

They get annihilated when they encounter a positron. The pair are converted into photons. But no other reactions; you can't fuse electrons.