How fast is the mass of the sun decreasing? As the sun mass decreases does it energy production decrease also?
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M$2 Answers
4 x 10^33 erg/sec = m (3 x 10^10 cm/sec)^2
and the answer is around 4 x 10^12 grams per second. At this rate, it would take 160 billion years for the sun to lose 1% of its mass.
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/ast99/ast99441.htm
The current rate of mass loss from the solar wind is about 1-2 x 10^12 grams per second:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_wind
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/Hbase/solar/solwin.html
and so the current rate of solar mass loss is 5-6 x 10^12 g/sec.
Despite this mass loss, the sun's energy output is gradually increasing over time. The accumulation of helium in the sun's core increases its density, which increases the rate of fusion in the surrounding hydrogen layer and increases the sun's overall energy output.
http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=270276
However, the sun is also expanding very slowly:
http://eo.nso.edu/MrSunspot/answerbook/sun-evolution.html
which would cause the surface temperature to decrease (or at least increase more slowly than it would otherwise). Either way, 600,000 years is only 0.015% of the sun's remaining main-sequence life, so any temperature change at the sun's surface over that time would be insignificant.
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M$
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M$
Looking at the energy side:
E = 2x10^30 kg * (3x10^8)^2 m^2/s^2
E = 2x10^30 * 9x10^16 kg m^2 / s^2
E = 18x10^46 joules = 1.8x10^47 J
How did scientist calculate 4 x 10^33 ergs? What is an erg?
Is 4 x 10^33 ergs per second equivalent?
Hydrogen Burn rate:
4 x 10^12 grams per second (453 grams = 1 lb)
8,830,022,075 pounds per second
4,415,011 tons per second
264,900,662.3 tons per minute
1,5894,039,735 tons per hour
3.81457E+11 tons per day
This is the total amount of energy the sun could produce
Thanks
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