Like fossil fuels come from organic matter that grew because of the sun. Is there any form of energy on that cannot be traced back to the sun in some way?

  • FermionEnglish
    111·
    14 days ago

    Geothermal comes ultimately from the gravitational energy of the earth itself compressing and heating it

    One thing that’s at least 97-percent certain is that radioactive decay supplies only about half the Earth’s heat. Other sources – primordial heat left over from the planet’s formation, and possibly others as well – must account for the rest.

    https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2011/07/17/kamland-geoneutrinos/

    A surprising amount of geothermal energy comes from radioactive decay. Gravitational binding energy is indeed very large, but much of that heat has already radiated away before a solid crust formed.

    • NataliePortland@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      2·
      14 days ago

      But it sounds like, based on other comments, those things are from stars too, right? Like the sun caused the formation of our planet. It also contributes to tidal forces. And radioactive materials also came from other stars if not our own star. Right?

      • FermionEnglish
        11·
        13 days ago

        If main sequence stars were candles, supernova would be a nuclear bomb. Elements heavier than iron are only produced in events that are so energetic, the luminosity can exceed that of the entire galaxy they are in. What was a star becomes a neutron star or black hole afrer the supernova. Main sequence stars do not produce heavy elements until they die.

        So if you want to say that radionucleotides come from stars, I won’t play semantics police, but that is reductive to the point of missing out on how incredibly unique supernovae are as a stellar phenomenon.

        • NataliePortland@lemmy.caOPEnglish
          2·
          13 days ago

          That’s so rad actually. Thank you for enlightening me. Isn’t that amazing that the elements on our planet came from those events