Star interiors vary according to their mass and composition, so let’s restrict ourselves to a star like the Sun. Typical temperatures at a star’s core are 10–20 million degrees, at least 200 times hotter than a lightning bolt.
Typical densities are more than four times denser than the densest-known element, osmium.
Under such conditions, the atoms at the star’s core are completely ionised (their electrons have been stripped off) and they’re undergoing nuclear fusion reactions, combining hydrogen to form helium. This releases a large amount of energy in the form of gamma-ray photons, which radiate towards the outer regions of the star.
Sadly, we couldn’t survive a trip to the Sun’s core to see what it looks like. We and any craft we were travelling in would be crushed and ionised. And even if we did survive, we wouldn’t be able to see anything – the only light inside has wavelengths far beyond our visual range.
Only in a thin shell near the star’s surface are there photons we can see. Here, our surroundings would look much like the Sun’s visible surface, the photosphere.
This article is an answer to the question (asked by Jacob Parrott) 'Do we know what the cores of stars look like?'
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