Why do stars like our Sun only produce elements below iron?

Well...in fact the Sun will never get hot enough in its core to do much more than to fuse helium into carbon. You need massive stars to cook new, heavier elements like silicon, oxygen, magnesium and iron. And the elements heavier than iron are only produced at the time of the supernova itself, not before. Any iron, and uranium that the Sun now has was a gift from a long dead supernova!


Copyright 1997 Dr. Sten Odenwald
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