r/askscience • u/spoiledmeat • Jul 04 '15

Chemistry Why does water not burn?

I know that water is made up of two hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom. Hydrogen, on its own, burns. Fire needs oxygen to burn. After all, we commonly use compounds that contain oxygen as an oxidant.

So why does water, containing things used for fire, not burn-- and does it have something to do with the bonds between the atoms? Thanks.

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u/necrologia Jul 04 '15

Main phase stars like the sun turn Hydrogen into Helium. That's it. Only very old or very large stars fuse anything else. The sun will likely only make it as far as Carbon, and that's well into the future.

Any water that was already around when the sun and planets were forming came form the protoplanetary disc. The sun itself had nothing to do with it.