Lecture 4 - Energy Generation in Stars
Stellar Nucleosynthesis was formally born around the middle of the twentieth century. Yet, at a time when the discovery of neutrons was ten years in the future, Sir Arthur Eddington accurately predicted that the Sun’s source of energy comes from the fusion of Hydrogen into Helium.
How do stars generate the energy they radiate?
Stars radiate an enormous amount of energy for a very long time - from tens of millions of years to billions of years, depending on their mass. In 1920, Sir Arthur Eddington advanced the idea that the energy radiated by the stars is generated by transmuting Hydrogen to Helium. This idea was worked out in great detail by Hans Bethe in 1938. "Quantum Tunnelling" is essential for this process to occur. This lecture explains this basic process, as well as the details of the fusion reactions.