" How is it still holding onto the planets if its consuming itself?"
To a fair approximation the sun is converting hydrogen into helium and a lot of energy.
The best estimates say this will take something like ten billion years from start to finish
The change of mass is small because a helium atom weighs very nearly as much as the 4 hydrogens it's made from.
So, over the course of something like 10,000,000,000 years the sun's gravitational attraction will alter by about 0.7%.
The planet's orbits will shift a bit, but not much.
"Why does the solar wind accelorate?"
Who says they do?
Some of the hot gas from the surface of the sun diffuses off into space.
Some of it gets caught in the magnetic field of turbulent bits and whipped up to a rather higher speed.
This post has been edited by John Cuthber: 5 February 2012 - 01:47 PM
What's this signature thingy then? Did you know Santa only brings presents to people who click the + sign? -->