Jason Kendall's Intro to Astronomy Course

View the entire video series

Module 6: The Sun: Measuring and Understanding the Closest Star

05: What Powers the Sun?

Video References

• References for Module 6: The Sun: Measuring and Understanding the Closest Star
  • Supplement the videos with "OpenStax Astronomy"
    • 15 The Sun: A Garden-Variety Star
    • 16: The Sun, a Nuclear Powerhouse
  • 05: What Powers the Sun?
    • Here we learn how the Sun shines, and how long it will shine, as well as some of the great questions of 19th century Physics. We'll also see what your smile looks like when you get a Nobel Prize.
    • Jim Hutton's Siccar Point
    • Gravitational Potential Energy
    • Kelvin-Helmholtz mechanism
    • The discovery of radioactivity
    • Wilhelm Röntgen
    • Timeline of Nuclear Physics Discoveries
    • Einstein's Mass-Energy Equivalence
    • Sir Arthur Eddington
    • William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin
    • Hermann von Helmholtz
    • Alpha Decay
    • Quantum Tunnelling
    • George Gamow
    • Gamow Peak
    • The Proton-Proton Chain
    • Tsar Bomba
    • Hans Bethe
    • Henri Becquerel