Sky Matters: Without thermonuclear fusion there is no me — or you

We live in a golden era. There is light and heat in our Universe. To us mere mortals it may seem like it lasts for an eternity, but to a universe with no known end it is a mere momentary episode enabled by thermonuclear fusion, but preceding an endless night.

Calculations revealed that the enormous energy emitted by the Sun requires the fusion of four million tonnes of hydrogen into helium every second — but the Sun is big enough to do this for an incredible 10 billion years.

There has been a lot of news coverage recently about “thermonuclear fusion” following a successful demonstration of its capabilities at the Lawrence Livermore laboratories in the US.

Fusion is a process whereby hydrogen nuclei are smashed together at super-high temperatures of around 15 million centigrade, causing them to stick together (or “fuse”). The hydrogen is also converted to helium in the process and furthermore the process releases energy.