Table of Contents
What is the heaviest element produced in the core of a high mass star?
iron
The highest mass stars can make all elements up to and including iron in their cores. But iron is the heaviest element they can make.
Which process occurs in the core of stars to create heavier elements?
When the new star reaches a certain size, a process called nuclear fusion ignites, generating the star’s vast energy. The fusion process forces hydrogen atoms together, transforming them into heavier elements such as helium, carbon and oxygen.
What happens to the core of a high mass star?
At the end of a high-mass star’s fusion process, iron composes the star’s core. No nuclear fusion of iron is possible out of a high-mass star core, which has the same mass as our entire Sun. The pressure at the star’s iron-laden core continues to build until the ultimate cosmic fireworks occur: a supernova.
What elements are produced from high mass stars?
The oxygen and heavier elements in our bodies were made in the nuclear furnace of high mass stars. High core temperatures allow helium to fuse with heavier elements. allow fusion to elements as heavy as iron. Advanced reactions in stars make elements like Si, S, Ca, and Fe.
What produced the iron and heavier elements?
Some of the heavier elements in the periodic table are created when pairs of neutron stars collide cataclysmically and explode, researchers have shown for the first time. Light elements like hydrogen and helium formed during the big bang, and those up to iron are made by fusion in the cores of stars.
Why is iron the heaviest elements that can be produced in star?
After the hydrogen in the star’s core is exhausted, the star can fuse helium to form progressively heavier elements, carbon and oxygen and so on, until iron and nickel are formed. Up to this point, the fusion process releases energy. The formation of elements heavier than iron and nickel requires an input of energy.
What process produces heavy elements?
How heavy and a much heavier elements formed?
Since the 1950s, we have known that hydrogen and helium formed during the Big Bang, and that heavier elements up to iron form via nuclear fusion in stars and when stars explode as supernovae.
What is the heaviest element produced in the core of a high mass star quizlet?
9) Our Sun will end its life in a planetary nebula and become a white dwarf. 10) The most massive stars generate energy at the end of their lives by fusing iron in their cores. 11) The heaviest element produced by stars or in supernovae is silicon. 12) All stars that become supernovae will leave behind a neutron star.
What kind of elements can a high mass star produce?
They should see, that like high-mass stars, they have created heavy elements, even though they started with just hydrogen. A high-mass star converts its hydrogen to helium, helium to carbon, carbon to magnesium, carbon and helium to oxygen, oxygen to sulphur, oxygen and helium to neon, and silicon and helium to nickel.
What are the late life stages of a high mass star?
Late life stages of high-mass stars are similar to those of low-mass stars: Hydrogen core fusion (main sequence) Hydrogen shell burning (supergiant) Helium core fusion (supergiant)
How are elements produced in the cores of stars?
Students should also have read the background sections on the Life Cycles of the Stars and the Dispersion of Elements . Elements are produced in the cores of high-mass stars by fusion reactions. All stars start by burning hydrogen and end up creating many heavier elements inside their cores.
How does the mass of a star affect its life?
A star’s mass determines its entire life story because it determines its core temperature. High-mass stars with > 8M Sunhave short lives, eventually becoming hot enough to make iron, and end in supernova explosions. Low-mass stars with < 2M Sunhave long lives, never become hot enough to fuse carbon nuclei, and end as white dwarfs.