What is believed to be a major factor in transporting energy from the center of the sun to its surface?

Convection is a major factor in transporting energy from the center of the sun to its surface due to the way energy transfer occurs in the sun's inner structure. In the sun's core, nuclear fusion generates a tremendous amount of heat and energy. This energy heats the surrounding plasma, which becomes less dense and rises towards the surface. As the hot plasma moves upward, it cools down and becomes denser, then sinks back down to be heated again, creating a convective cell.

This process is efficient in moving energy, as the continuous cycle of rising hot plasma and sinking cooler plasma facilitates the transfer of energy from the core to the outer layers, eventually reaching the solar surface. Importantly, convection is distinct from conduction and radiation in that it involves the physical movement of material rather than transferring energy through direct contact or electromagnetic waves. This characteristic makes convection the dominant mode of energy transport in the sun's outer layers, where the material is in a fluid state rather than solid.