Is the sun a big ball of fire?

Answer 1

The sun is not a ball of fire, exactly. It's closer to a big ball of radiation, or radiant energy.
Fire is rapid oxidation of matter. It's a chemical reaction. Smoke is carbon (and other particulate matter) that has not been completely oxidized (burnt).
The sun is a giant nuclear reaction - specifically, nuclear fusion.
This is a very rudimentary explanation that will leave physics students shaking their heads at me, but - here goes:
The pressure at the interior of the sun is so great that it fuses hydrogen.
4 hydrogen get mashed together to form 1 helium. But the mass of the 1 helium is lightly LESS than the mass of the 4 hydrogen. The leftover is "converted" to the energy that grows our plants and burns our skin.
About 600 million tons of hydrogen get converted EVERY SECOND into about 596 million tons of helium. Other 4 millions tons per second become the energy that is radiated and LOOKS a little like fire.

Answer 2

It's not a ball of what most people think of when they say "fire".

Just like every visible star, the sun is a ball of gas heated to incandescence

by continuous nuclear fusion in its core. In most cases it is a glowing ball of fire

Answer 3

Is the sun on fire? It's sure hot enough! Wow! But it's not really on fire in the conventional sense. Fires on earth are all chemical reactions. That means the atoms and molecules involved are all busy trading around electrons and rearranging themselves into new chemical compounds, and we get lots of heat, light and smoke. On the sun, however, it is already really, really, really hot, and there aren't any whole atoms to be found because the extreme heat has driven away all their electrons. The superheated "soup" that is the sun is actually another state of matter. Remember that things are basically solids, liquids or gasses. When things are as hot as they are on the sun, however, the formation of another state of matter - a plasma - occurs. And the forces at work on the sun are nuclear forces, not chemical forces like in fires here on earth. Is the sun on fire? Not in the conventional sense. It is a nuclear furnace powered by nuclear fusion, not by "ordinary" chemistry like fires here on eath.

Answer 4

It could be described that way, yes. However, some clarifications are in order.

"Burning": It is very hot. But its energy comes from nuclear reactions, not from a chemical burning.

"Gas": It is actually a plasma, which is considered a different state of matter than a gas. Informally, it could be called a gas.

Answer 5

Yes. Suns and stars are the same thing. The sun (like all stars) is a burning, boilingly hot sphere of gas. Stars start out as spheres of gas (mainly hydrogen) in nebulae (diffuse clouds of gas) that are attracted into their ball-shape by gravity. Nuclear reactions convert the hydrogen to helium and this is what releases the energy that makes the star so hot. Later in a star's life, helium may be converted to heavier elements and this results in even hotter burning.

The sun itself is 6000 degrees Celsius upon the surface, and 15 000 000 degrees Celsius within the core. The sun has a diameter of 1.39 million kilometres and is classified as a type G yellow dwarf star.

Answer 6

no. The earth is an accumulation of space debris that grouped together. The "fire" inside the earth is merely the result of friction due to the gravitational pull on this said accumulated debris.

Answer 7

No. The Moon is a giant ball of ROCK.

How can we be sure? That's easy; if the Moon were a ball of fire, it would give off its OWN light, and not merely reflect the light of the Sun. The phases of the Moon prove that it is not the source of the light, but merely a reflection of it.

In fact, the Moon isn't even a very good reflector, since it only reflects about 5% of the light that strikes the Moon. If it were a better reflector of the Sun, we wouldn't be able to look at it - just as we cannot look at the Sun directly.

Answer 8

Yes, it is entirely made up of burning gases.

Answer 9

The sun is composed mostly of hydrogen, so "ball of gas" is esentially correct.

Answer 10

Yes.