Lyrics of 'Why Does The Sun Shine? (The Sun Is A Mass Of Incandescent Gas)' by 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

Yo ho, it's 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 it's light
We need it's heat
We need it's energy
Without the sun, without a doubt
There'd be no you and me

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

It is so hot that everything on it is a gas: iron, copper, aluminum, and many others.

The sun is large

If the sun were hollow, a million earths could fit inside. and yet, the sun is only a middle-sized star.

The sun is far away

About 93 million miles away, and that's why it looks so small.

And even when it's out of sight
The sun shines night and day

The sun gives heat
The sun gives light
The sunlight that we see
The sunlight comes from our own sun's
Atomic energy

Scientists have found that the sun is a huge atom-smashing machine. the heat and light of the sun come from the nuclear reactions of hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, and helium. (*)

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

[(*)Live versions of this song are improvised extensively. some variants on this section:]
Scientists have found that the sun is a huge atom-smashing machine. the heat and light of the sun are caused by the nuclear reaction between hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, and helium.

Scientists have found that the sun is a huge atom-smashing machine. the heat and light from the sun come from the nuclear reaction between oxygen, hydrogen, helium, and hydrogen.

You know, frank, scientists have found that the sun is a huge atom-smashing machine. the heat and light from the sun are caused by the nuclear reaction between hydrogen and you, frank o'toole.

Scientists have found that the sun is a huge atom-smashing machine. the heat and light from the sun come from the nuclear reaction between hydrogen, nitrogen, helium, carbon, boron, chloron, flu
Moron, and estrogen.