Here's how it works:
1. Hydrogen Fusion: In the Sun's core, immense pressure and heat force hydrogen nuclei (protons) to overcome their electrostatic repulsion and fuse together.
2. Deuterium Formation: Two protons fuse to form a deuterium nucleus (one proton and one neutron), releasing a positron (anti-electron) and a neutrino.
3. Helium Formation: Deuterium then fuses with another proton to form a helium-3 nucleus (two protons and one neutron), releasing a gamma ray.
4. Final Helium: Two helium-3 nuclei fuse to form a helium-4 nucleus (two protons and two neutrons), releasing two protons.
Energy Release: This process releases a tremendous amount of energy in the form of gamma rays, positrons, and neutrinos. The total energy released in the fusion of four hydrogen nuclei to form one helium nucleus is about 26.7 MeV (megaelectronvolts).
Note: The gamma rays are eventually absorbed and re-emitted as visible light, which we see as sunlight.
