Unfortunately for the star, however, no further energy can be gained from burning iron, so the process stops there. After the silicon is gone, the star’s core is composed of iron. Massive stars, on the other hand, have many more phases, allowing for the nuclear fusion of hydrogen, helium, carbon, neon, oxygen, and, finally, silicon. Stars like the Sun are limited to an initial hydrogen burning phase - the Sun’s will continue for another 4 billion years - followed by a shorter helium burning phase of about 2 billion years. Eventually, however, a star will run out of material to burn. Unremarkable stars like the Sun go out with a relatively quiet whimper compared to their more massive cousins, whose deaths are announced with fireworks.ĭuring most of their lifetimes, stars perform a careful balancing act between the inward force of gravity and the outward pressure caused by nuclear fusion in their cores. The end of a star’s life depends largely on its mass. You can really probe the interior, there’s a surface you can study, and you can measure a lot of its properties.”īefore you can get this ideal cosmic laboratory, a star first has to die. “With neutron stars, you can do a lot more. “It’s hard to study black holes,” says Samar Safi-Harb, the Canada research chair in supernova remanent astrophysics at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. And, unlike black holes, these exotic objects are observable. From their crushing gravity to the universe’s strongest magnetic fields, extremes of physics are the norm for neutron stars. They’re also a dream come true for physicists. Neutron stars aren’t just notable for the valuable elements they create, though. But it takes the collision of two neutron stars - incredibly dense stellar corpses - to create the heavier elements like silver, gold, and platinum.
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Sure, regular stars can create the basic elements: helium, carbon, neon, oxygen, silicon, and iron. But not all stars create elements equally.
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It isn’t a secret that humanity and everything around us is made of star stuff.