Is there fire on the sun?

[Baby Astronaut]

Besides gases and thermonuclear reactions, does the sun ever have fire on it?

 

A related question: if the Earth's atmosphere didn't have oxygen -- say it was a mixture composed solely of hydrogen, nitrogen, and other gases -- can a normal fire still be lit if there were enough hydrogen in our atmosphere? I'm thinking since either oxygen or hydrogen alone is flammable and/or can be highly explosive, it stands to reason you can produce a flame with either. Therefore on the sun also, I must wonder if the hydrogen that's not yet fusing -- the part of it nearer the surface -- would burst into flame due to the heat generated by the already fusing hydrogen occurring nearer to the center.

[Sisyphus]

There wouldn't be fire on the sun. Fire is a chemical reaction of fuel combining with an oxidizer into new molecules. However, the sun is all plasma - no molecules at all. It's too hot for fire.

 

Hydrogen and oxygen alone are not flammable. Things are very readily flammable in the presence of pure oxygen, and pure hydrogen is a very ready fuel, however you still need both fuel and oxidizer.

 

Oxygen itself is not the only possible oxidizer, however. It's just by far the most abundant in our atmosphere. I don't think you could ever have a fire in an atmosphere that was just like ours minus the oxygen.

[Mr Skeptic]

A related thing: the result of burning hydrogen with oxygen as the oxidizer, is water. Water is notoriously good at putting out fires. Likewise, the result of burning carbon with oxygen as the oxidizer is CO2, which is also non-flammable and found in plenty of fire extinguishers. These are low energy molecules, since it would take a lot of energy to separate them into their component chemicals (the reverse of the fire reaction).

[fottry55i6]

Oxygen is one of the elements in the "fire triangle" - fuel, oxygen, and heat. If one or more of them is not present, then fire cannot occur. If there was no oxygen on Earth, you would not have a fire.

[ewmon]

In fact, some nuclear power plants use hydrogen to cool their massive generators.

[insane_alien]

Oxygen is one of the elements in the "fire triangle" - fuel, oxygen, and heat. If one or more of them is not present, then fire cannot occur. If there was no oxygen on Earth, you would not have a fire.

 

the fire triangle is a over simplified thing. what it should read is:

 

reducer, oxidiser, thermal energy

 

the oxidiser is not necessarily oxygen, halogens tend to be good oxidisers and are often found in explosives because of this.

[Moontanman]

Good point IA, I've seen a candle burn in chlorine, a smoky fire with lots of soot.

Edited May 12, 2010 by Moontanman

[insane_alien]

Good point IA, I've seen a candle burn in chlorine, a smoky fire with lots of suet.

 

lots of raw beef/mutton fat(depends on where you live)

 

or did you mean soot?

 

[Moontanman]

lots of raw beef/mutton fat(depends on where you live)

 

or did you mean soot?

 

 

I'm sorry soot is what i was trying to say,