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The Sun produces 386 trillion gigawatts of energy through nuclear fusion, which is slowly declining. This energy is responsible for life on Earth and may replace fossil fuels in the future. Sunspot activity causes variations in energy output, and the Sun’s energy has increased by 40% since the solar system’s formation.
Our Sun pumps about 386 trillion gigawatts into space, mostly in the form of electromagnetic radiation. By comparison, a large nuclear reactor generates about 1 gigawatt and global energy consumption is a few thousand gigawatts. This energy production is typical of a star of the same class as our Sun.
Before the discovery of nuclear energy, scientists imagined the Sun as a burning ball of matter. Because the Sun is so large, it could theoretically be made up of conventional matter in a state of combustion, but this combustion could only last a few tens of thousands of years before the matter burns out completely. Today we know that the Sun is powered by nuclear energy.
The Sun’s total energy output is slowly declining as it fuses the nuclei of light elements together and is left with non-fusible, heavier matter. Eventually this power will decrease so fast that the explosive energy of the fusion will be overcome by the pull of gravity and the star will collapse. The heat generated by the collapse will cause our Sun’s diameter to expand to the size of the orbit of Mars.
Only a tiny fraction of the Sun’s energy falls on our Earth, and yet this energy is responsible for the functioning of almost all living things on the planet. It is widely assumed that as our civilization progresses, it will begin to discard dirty fossil fuels in favor of cleaner and ultimately more abundant solar energy.
The energy production of the Sun is not entirely constant. Solar flares and sunspot activity cause small variations in the amount of light sent outward. It has been speculated that a period of declining sunspot activity in the 17th century, the Maunder Minimum, may have been responsible for a period of declining heat in Europe called the Little Ice Age. It has also been theorized that the Sun’s energy output has increased by about 40% since the formation of the solar system.
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