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Asked in CBSE AIPMT 1992 · Energy released in fission and fusion
The Sun has been radiating around 3.8×10²⁶ J every second for billions of years.
Only nuclear processes release energy at that rate, and the Sun's core supplies the temperature and pressure they need.
Bethe showed that hydrogen nuclei there fuse to form helium, giving out large amounts of energy.
Fission would need heavy nuclei, which the Sun has almost none of, and chemical processes release millions of times less energy per reaction.
So solar energy is due to a fusion reaction.
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