compared to the volumetric heats generated in an active compost heap.

The tremendous power output of the Sun is not due to its high power per volume, but instead due to its large size. The fusion rate in the core is in a self-correcting equilibrium: a slightly higher rate of fusion would cause the core to heat up more and expand slightly against the weight of the outer layers, reducing the fusion rate and correcting the perturbation; and a slightly lower rate would cause the core to cool and shrink slightly, increasing the fusion rate and again reverting it to its present level.[56][57] The gamma rays (high-energy photons) released in fusion reactions are absorbed in only a few millimeters of solar plasma and then re-emitted again in a random direction and at slightly lower energy. Therefore it takes a long time for radiation to reach the Sun's surface. Estimates of the photon travel time range between 10,000 and 170,000 years.[58] In contrast, it takes only 2.3 seconds for the neutrinos, which account for about 2% of the total energy production of the Sun, to reach the surface. Since energy transport in the Sun is a process which involves photons in thermodynamic equilibrium with matter, the time scale of energy transport in the Sun is longer, on the order of 30,000,000 years. This is the time it would take the Sun to return to a stable state if the rate of energy generation in its core were suddenly to be changed.[59] During the final part of the photon's trip out of the Sun, in the convective outer layer, collisions are fewer and far between, and they have less energy. The photosphere is the transparent surface of the Sun where the photons escape as visible light. Each gamma ray in the Sun's core is converted into several million photons of visible light before escaping into space. Neutrinos are also released by the fusion reactions in the core, but unlike photons they rarely interact with matter, so almost all are able to escape the Sun immediately. For many years measurements of the number of neutrinos produced in the Sun were lower than theories predicted by a factor of 3. This discrepancy was resolved in 2001 through the discovery of the effects of neutrino oscillation: the Sun emits the number of neutrinos predicted by the theory, but neutrino detectors were missing 23 of them because the neutrinos had changed flavor by the time they were detected.[60]

Radiative zone
Main article: Radiative zone Below about 0.7 solar radii, solar material is hot and dense enough that thermal radiation is the primary means of energy transfer from the core.[61] This zone is not regulated by thermal convection; however the temperature drops from approximately 7 to 2 million kelvin with increasing distance from the core.[50] This temperature gradient is less than the value of the adiabatic lapse rate and hence cannot drive convection.[50] Energy is transferred by radiationions of Cross-section of a solar-type star (NASA) hydrogen and helium emit photons, which travel only a brief distance before being reabsorbed by other ions.[61] The density drops a hundredfold (from 20 g/cm3 to only 0.2 g/cm3) from 0.25 solar radii to the top of the radiative zone.[61]