A sun-like star evolves off the main sequence onto the giant branch once 10% of its hydrogen has fused into helium. calculate the total amount of mass destroyed in the sun by the time it leaves the main sequence. Solution A: The Sun has a mass of 2x10^30 kg, ten percent of this amounts to 2x10^29 kg of hydrogen. When this hydrogen fuses into helium a fraction of 0.7% of the mass is converted to energy. This amounts to 1.4 x x10^27 kg.