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Where does the helium go?

Most say the Sun is converting hydrogen to helium in the process of fusion. So, where is all the helium? Whether you believe the Sun has been here for four thousand years or 40 million, the continuous rate of conversion to create the heat and warmth provided to the Solar System should produce staggering amounts of helium during all moments. After all this time, there should be a lot of helium in the Solar System: Mercury should probably have an atmosphere almost completely made of helium, but there is only a trace. Venus has almost none. We have almost none, and Mars has none. Jupiter has almost none. Saturn’s top atmosphere is about 25%, and Uranus & Neptune about 19%. Comets appear to have none. I roughly calculate that the Sun should be producing the equivalent mass of helium to the Earth’s atmosphere in a very short period of time – not more than a few weeks or worse a few months or years. If the Sun has been pumping out helium for these many eons, then where is it? And please do not use solar wind blowing it out of the Solar System – it would have to blow by the planets, and the ratio numbers I read say it does not. Plus, what motive force demands it leave the Solar System? So, where does it go?

Update:

RickB: Do you state that helium atoms may transition the Event Horizon of a continuous thermonuclear furnace because they are heavier than the hydrogen within?

Update 2:

Pizzachu: thanks for the vector for our helium. Knew it was trapped but didn't know where it came from.

4 Answers

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  • RickB
    Lv 7
    9 years ago
    Favorite Answer

    The fusion of hydrogen to helium occurs only in the sun's core (about 1/5 to 1/4 of the sun's diameter). That's the only region where the temperature and pressure are high enough to sustain fusion. When fusion takes place, the excess energy is carried outward in the form of photons and neutrinos; but the helium nuclei remain in the core. In fact, they sink farther in, because they're heavier than the surrounding hydrogen nuclei.

    EDIT:

    > "Do you state that helium atoms may transition the Event Horizon of a continuous thermonuclear furnace because they are heavier than the hydrogen within?"

    Not sure what "Event Horizon" means in this context. What I mean is that there's a region (near the core) which is hydrogen-rich and which has sufficiently high temps and pressure to support fusion. As fusion occurs, the resulting helium responds to gravity, and gradually makes its way closer to the sun's center (through a circuitous route of many intermediate random collisions).

  • 9 years ago

    Stars fuse hydrogen into helium, most of which remains with the star due to gravity. A small amount of helium will leave the star. (For the Sun, this is referred to as the solar wind.) If a star goes nova, then the accumulated helium (and heavier elements, depending on the star) are then released.

    In the solar system, helium is light enough that it tends to diffuse out of the atmosphere of the smaller planets. Some leaves the Sun via the solar wind, but that's pretty diffuse, and the smaller planets can't capture it because it would just diffuse away again.

    The helium that the inner planets have came from older stars that have gone nova, and provide the material that makes up the solar system.

  • ?
    Lv 5
    9 years ago

    The helium is still in the sun... When two hydrogen's get hit together they don't immediately get shot away. The sun's gravity still pulls on them just like everything else in the solar system.

    Besides, helium is much too light to be in the atmosphere of any inner planet. It's only found in the outer planets, like expected. Earth's helium comes entirely from the alpha decay of heavy metals.

  • ?
    Lv 5
    9 years ago

    This is the composition of the Sun by mass:

    Hydrogen 73.46%

    Helium 24.85%

    Oxygen 0.77%

    Carbon 0.29%

    Iron 0.16%

    Neon 0.12%

    Nitrogen 0.09%

    Silicon 0.07%

    Magnesium 0.05%

    Sulfur 0.04%

    When hydrogen is converted to helium, it remains in the sun. I suppose over time, the hydrogen concentration slowly decreases while the helium concentration slowly increases. When the sun runs out of hydrogen, the sun would stop producing energy.

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