How much energy does the Sun produce in one hour?


This image was taken from the International Space Station and displays the most important feature of the sun for life on Earth: Its light and heat!

The Sun is a spectral type G2 V dwarf star that emits 3.8 x 10^33 ergs/sec or 3.8 x 10^26 watts of electromagnetic power from gamma ray to radio weavelengths, with most of the energy emitted in the visible light spectrum between 400 nanometers and 700 nanometers. This is an amount of energy each second equal to 3.8 x 10^26 joules.

In one hour, or 3600 seconds, it produces 1.4 x 10^31 Joules of energy or 3.8 x 10^23 kilowatt-hours.

Since E = mc^2, in 1 hour it looses (1.37 x 10^37 ergs)/(9 x 10^20) = 1.5 x 10^16 grams or 15 billion metric tons of mass.

It's been doing this for about 4.5 billion years!

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