What is the conversion of hydrogen to helium in the enterior of a star called?

Answer 1

The process is called "nuclear fusion". When temperature and pressure are

high enough, the nuclei (nucleusses) of two hydrogen atoms may be forced

together so hard that they join and form a single nucleus.

Each hydrogen nucleus consists of one proton, so when they join, their combination

consists of two protons, and that's one form of the nucleus of a helium atom.

The thing that makes it more interesting is that the mass of the new nucleus is

less than the sum of the two that got squashed together to make it, and we

have to ask what happened to the missing mass. The answer is that it became

energy, and radiated away from the spot where the two nuclei were joining.

That's the process responsible for the energy that radiates from the sun, and

from most stars during most of their life.

Scientists and engineers have developed the technology to be able to create

nuclear fusion here on Earth, although it's still somewhat messy. You'd think

that this is a pretty good way to generate energy for our use, and you're

absolutely right. The problem is that when fusion is going on and energy is

coming out, it's so hot that nothing has been developed yet to keep it in. So

right now, there's only one device that regularly uses nuclear fusion here on

Earth. We call that device the "hydrogen bomb".

Answer 2

Fusion.