At last, after a period of perhaps 30 to 50 million years – astronomers still cannot agree on their numbers – the Sun's contraction finally came to an end. Why? Because the Sun's internal temperature had reached an all-time high of 15 000 000 Celsius – and something had begun to happen to its supply of hydrogen.

Hydrogen is the simplest of all elements. Each atom contains just a single subatomic particle called a proton in its nucleus, positively charged. Orbiting this, meanwhile, is a single much smaller particle with exactly the opposite electric charge: an electron. Inside the Sun, these atoms are ionised: the electrons are detached and roam freely in the sea of hydrogen nuclei or protons. Very often, two of these hydrogen nuclei come together. Just as two magnetic poles of like polarity repel each other, so too do two protons. But not if they are brought together with sufficient speed. The speed of particles in a gas can be measured by the gas's temperature. And at 15 000 000 Celsius, the positively charged hydrogen nuclei at the Sun's core were now moving so quickly that when they smashed together they overcame their electrostatic repulsion, and fused as stronger nuclear forces took over. At last, the hydrogen was being consumed, gradually converted into helium in the Sun's core via a chain of nuclear reactions. Energy is a by-product of these reactions. And so the Sun now began to generate a significant amount of power in its core.