Creating Elements up to Iron

The red giant star Betelgeuse: the red giants are stars that exhausted their Hydrogen fuel and are burning Helium and heavier elements. Click on image for full size (91K GIF) Image courtesy of NASA, Hubble Space Telescope Institute

When the temperature in the core of a star is really hot (100 million degrees Kelvin!) fusion of Helium into Carbon happens. Oxygen is also formed when the temperature is this high.

When it gets even hotter in the core of the star other elements can be formed. These elements are Neon, Sodium, Magnesium, Sulfur, Silicon, Nickel, Cobalt and Iron. Have you ever heard of any of these elements? (hint: Sodium is found is something you eat...).

The red giant star Betelgeuse: the red giants are stars that exhausted their Hydrogen fuel and are burning Helium and heavier elements. Click on image for full size (91K GIF) Image courtesy of NASA, Hubble Space Telescope Institute

When the temperature in the core of a star reaches 100 million degrees Kelvin fusion of Helium into Carbon occurs. Oxygen is also formed from fusion of Carbon and Helium together when the temperature is this high.

When it gets even hotter in the core of the star other elements can be formed. These elements are Neon, Sodium, Magnesium, Sulfur, Silicon, Nickel, Cobalt and Iron. Have you ever heard of any of these elements? (hint: Sodium is found is something you eat...).

The red giant star Betelgeuse: the red giants are stars that exhausted their Hydrogen fuel and are burning Helium and heavier elements. Click on image for full size (91K GIF) Image courtesy of NASA, Hubble Space Telescope Institute

When the temperature in the core of a star reaches 100 million degrees Kelvin fusion of Helium into Carbon occurs (three Helium nuclei combine to form a nucleus of Carbon). In the same range of temperature Oxygen is also formed from fusion of Carbon and Helium together.

At 500 million degrees Kelvin two Carbon (2 ¹²C) nuclei can fuse to form heavier elements such as Neon (²⁰Ne+⁴He), Sodium (²³Na+¹H), and Magnesium (²⁴Mg).

Oxygen can start burning effectively at temperatures on the order of 1 billion degrees Kelvin. The fusion of two nuclei of Oxygen can produce Sulfur (³²S), and Silicon (²⁸Si+⁴He).

The heaviest elements obtainable through a fusion process that releases energy are obtained at a temperature range of 2 billions degrees Kelvin, when two Silicon nuclei can fuse to form Nickel (⁵⁶Ni). Nickel-56 can then decay into Cobalt and Iron.