• Question: what made you want to be a scientist? how was the sun created?

    Asked by simdhillon to Davie, Gemma, James P, James V, Nuala on 26 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: James Verdon

      James Verdon answered on 26 Jun 2012:


      Hi simdhillon,

      The sun was created due to the effects of gravity on a big cloud of space-dust. There are nebulae up in space (the Orion nebula is probably the most well known), which consist mainly of big clouds of hydrogen atoms, along with small amounts of all the other elements we have, like iron, oxygen, calcium etc.

      By random chance, some parts of this cloud would have had more particles in them, and so would have had more mass. The law of gravity states that things with more mass attract things with less mass (like the earth, with a lot of mass, attracts us to it). So an area with more mass would have attracted the rest of the dust towards it. As it attracts more and more matter, it gains mass, and so becomes more and more powerful at sucking in everything around it.

      All the particles are basically falling in towards the center of this dust cloud. As they fall, they gain more and more speed, and therefore energy (just as if we fall off a building, we go faster and faster). Eventually, the hydrogen atoms have enough energy that they can undergo fusion, joining together to create helium atoms. Fusion creates huge amounts of energy, which is the energy we feel as heat and light from the sun.

      So the sun is basically a big cloud of hydrogen atoms that have collapsed under their own weight so much that they are undergoing fusion, which releases vast amounts of energy.

      When we look through telescopes, we can actually see new stars beginning to form in the middle of the nebulae, so we know that this must have been the process that created our stars too.

      Why did I want to become a scientist? Well, to know things like what I’ve just talked about, you have to use science. Science is the way we know what things are, and how the world works. Without science, the sun would just be a big fiery ball in the sky that we didn’t understand (most primitive cultures believe that the sun is a god of some type). That is why science is so crucial, and it’s why I want to learn about it.

    • Photo: James Pope

      James Pope answered on 26 Jun 2012:


      Hi simdhillon

      I can’t add anything to James V’s answer about the sun being created, but I can answer what made me want to be a scientist.

      For me it was very much from a young age I was always curious about how things worked and why things worked, from TV’s to Cars to Clouds. I just followed that curiosity and kept going. I found that as a result I really enjoyed science and so I have just stuck with it, I really think it’s important in life to do the things you enjoy because they are what makes you happiest!

    • Photo: Nuala Carson

      Nuala Carson answered on 27 Jun 2012:


      James V has given you an awesome answer so i will not even attempt to add to that (mainly because i don’t know anything else!)

      I became a scientist because i enjoyed what i was doing at university and the natural line to follow was become a research scientist. I didn’t plan on it, it just happened but so far i am pretty glad it worked out this way

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