Nuclear Fusion Is A Major Part Of A Star's Life

Space and time were both made 13.7 billion years ago when the Big Bang occurred, and there were many hot, important particles that were left during this. In the beginning, the universe was dominated by radiation, but when the universe was 3 minutes old, it cooled enough protons and neutrons to combine into nuclei. As the universe was developing it produced the lightest element which is now known as Hydrogen. 1

Stars are made up of clouds of gas and dust, known as nebula.4 Nebulae consists of the elements from which stars and the solar systems are built, and stars within these clouds of gas cause them to glow with appealing colors such as reds, blues, and greens. These colors are the result of various elements within the nebula. Most nebulae

Nuclear fusion creates an outward pressure that balances with the inward pressure caused by gravity which stabilizes the star and for most of its life a star will spend it in its stable phase. Main sequence stars fuse hydrogen atoms to form helium atoms in its cores and approximately 90% of the stars in the universe, including the sun, are main sequence stars.3 The bigger a star is, the more it needs to burn hydrogen fuel to avoid the star from having a gravitational collapse. Bigger stars have higher temperatures because they require more fuel to burn. 4

Stars begin their lives mostly made with 70% hydrogen and 28% helium. The pressure and temperature in a star’s core are so high that a hydrogen atom fuse together to make helium. White dwarves fuse hydrogen into helium, and as a result, hydrogen fusion gives out tremendous amounts of energy which affects the heat and light of a star.

When a star builds up too much iron, it dies and so the core collapses and starts to move out first slowly and then it gets faster which sends a very sharp wave back out through the star which blows up and results in a supernova.10 The other 86 elements discovered in nature were produced in nuclear reactions in stars and huge explosions known as supernovae 2, and if the star that explodes is quite large, it might even form a black hole.11 A supernova explosion can be as bright as four billion stars and releases an excessive amount of energy which overcomes the iron barrier and makes the rest of the elements on the periodic table.12 As the supernovae explosion was happening, other elements were also formed and after the explosion the chemicals in space combined with each other to form ions and molecules which resulted in making elements. These elements travel through space for many years until they end up in planets such as Earth which becomes a part of everything we see around us and just about every element, were all created inside ancient stars before getting scattered across the universe when the supernovae