The Sun Is A Mass Of Incandescent Gas

They Might Be Giants · Other Songs - They Might Be Giants

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas

A gigantic nuclear furnace

Where hydrogen is built into helium

At a temperature of millions of degrees



The sun is hot

The sun is not

A place where we could live

But here on Earth there'd be no life

Without the light it gives



We need its light

We need its heat

The sunlight that we see

The sunlight comes from our own sun's atomic energy



The sun is a mass of incandescent gas

A gigantic nuclear furnace

Where hydrogen is built into helium

At a temperature of millions of degrees



The sun is hot

(The sun is so hot that everything on it is a gas

Aluminum, copper, iron, and many others.)

The sun is wide

(If the sun were hollow, a million Earths would fit inside.

And yet, it is only a middle-sized star.)

The sun is far away

(about 93 million miles away, and that's why it looks so small)

But even when it's out of sight

The sun shines night and day



We need its light

We need its heat

The sunlight that we see

The sunlight comes from our own sun's atomic energy



(Spoken)

Scientists have found that the sun is a huge atom-smashing machine.

The heat and light of the sun are caused by nuclear reactions between hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, and helium.



(Singing)

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas

A gigantic nuclear furnace

Where hydrogen is built into helium

At a temperature of millions of degrees