Almost every scrap of energy you use — the food you eat, the wind, the fossil fuels, the light of day — traces back to one object: an ordinary star, ninety-three million miles away, fusing hydrogen in its core. We go inside the Sun to see how it makes its energy, why it takes light tens of thousands of years to escape its interior, and how its storms can reach out and touch our technology.

You'll come away understanding what nuclear fusion actually is, why the Sun is stable rather than exploding, what the solar wind and solar flares do, and why our growing dependence on satellites and power grids makes us newly vulnerable to a star's bad temper.

Talking Science is sponsored by Kinsoft. Visit www.kinsoft.com.au

Further reading: NASA “Sun” science page ...