[Shryke]

I was taught that all fires require oxygen to burn. There are 3 compenents to a fire - eliminate one and no more fire:

1. Fuel.
2. Oxygen.
3. Heat.

That’s as real world as I know. Am I missing something?

[EndWelfareToday]

Yes. You are missing a lot. If your statement were fact and it is widely believed that the Sun has no plant life how is it burning? Aren't plants what create Oxygen?

Look, I really don't want to argue. There are many substances that we do know about that do not need oxygen to burn and not knowing everything there is to know I am relatively certain most, if not all of us have no clue what type of materials there are yet to be discovered that can burn without Oxygen. It's the height of arrogance for these bone headed eggheads to state something as a fact when they don't know their rear ends from a hole in the ground.

Be well!

[NicknamedBob]

"I was taught that all fires require oxygen to burn. There are 3 components to a fire - eliminate one and no more fire:

1. Fuel.
2. Oxygen.
3. Heat.

That’s as real world as I know. Am I missing something?"

That's a correct description of fire. But what fuels the sun is not ordinary fire.

The sun combines hydrogen with hydrogen in a process that produces energy because there is just the slightest amount of mass that disappears according to the famous equation, E=mc².

The amount of energy from any particular combination may not amount to much, but the sun goes through a lot of hydrogen.

You can perform the calculation for yourself. Find the amount of energy that is falling on a unit area at this distance from the sun. Multiply that by the amount needed to fill a spherical volume of space at the same radius.

You will find that the equivalent energy is equal to the disappearance from existence of four million tons of hydrogen every second!

As I said, the sun goes through a lot of hydrogen. And yes, eventually it will run out of it ... in about five billion years.