How do stars produce the heat and light energy they give off?

The intense pressure and temperature at the core of a starallow nuclear fusion reactions to take place. This is where atoms of hydrogen are fused into atoms of helium (through several stages). This reaction releases an enormous amount of energy in... read more

We require oxygen for combustion to produce light and heat energy. But the sun doesn't have any oxygen. read more

Stars have to have a tremendous amount of mass in order to have enough gravity to compress the gasses enough to create heat and, eventually, light. Which is why gas giants like Saturn and Jupiter do not give off light - they do not have enough mass and enough gravity to create enough pressure and heat to start nuclear fusion and to get their gasses glowing. read more