Today we investigated where our Sun gets its energy from. Turns out protons in the core clashing and releasing their mass in the form of enormous amounts of energy. As these protons continue to collide under immense pressure and temperature, they produce Helium and other new elements, through a process known as nuclear fusion.

When the universe was born it contained mostly Hydrogen and Helium, but fusion in supernovae and stars have since produced more than 80 other elements some of which make life possible.

The process is called the proton-proton chain, which begins when two Hydrogen nuclei collide and fuse into Deuterium(Hydrogen with a neutron), releasing a positron and neutrino as by-products. That Deuterium nucleus then fuses with another proton producing Helium3 emitting a gamma ray in the process and then two Helium4 nuclei fuse into Helium4 ejecting two protons in the process which can be used for further reactions.

Now, the mass of the Helium4 atom is slightly less than the initial four protons. This mass difference is converted into energy according to Einstein's famous equation E=MC2. This reaction occurs billions of times per second fueling all the heat and light we see from the Sun.