Headings The Earth
and Beyond Stars Search Questions
Stars - Life Cycle - Birth - Fusion (continued).
Fusion releases
large amounts of energy.
Where does the energy come
from?
If you
add up the mass of the nuclei
before and after fusion,
you find that some mass has
gone missing.
The process of fusion destroys a
little bit of mass.
This little bit of mass turns into a large
amount of energy.
The process
of fusion (nuclei joining together) continues in stars
eventually making bigger and
bigger nuclei.
After helium with two protons,
lithium can form with three protons,
then beryllium with four protons and so
on.
The larger nuclei are called "heavier elements".
Older stars
start making the heavier elements up to iron
(Fe)
which has a mass
number of 56.
All of the elements
with larger mass numbers
than iron
(cobalt to uranium)
are only made in a supernova
explosion.
Uranium and other
heavy elements are present
in the core of the Sun
and the rocks of the planets in our solar system.
This is evidence that the Sun and the planets
formed from the remains of a
previous supernova.
Headings The Earth
and Beyond Stars Search Questions
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