Stellar nucleosynthesis is the collective term for the nuclear reactions taking place in stars to build the nuclei of the heavier elements.
The processes involved began to be understood early in the twentieth century, when it was first realised that the energy released from nuclear reactions accounted for the longevity of the Sun as a source of heat and light.
The prime energy producer in the sun is the fusion of hydrogen to helium, which occurs at a minimum temperature of 3 million kelvin.
For more information about the topic Stellar nucleosynthesis, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:
Nucleosynthesis Nucleosynthesis is the process of creating new atomic nuclei from preexisting nucleons (protons and neutrons). The primordial preexisting nucleons ... >
read more
Big Bang nucleosynthesis In physical cosmology, Big Bang nucleosynthesis (or primordial nucleosynthesis) refers to the production of nuclei other than H-1, the normal, light ... >
read more
Red giant A red giant is a large non-main sequence star of stellar classification K or M; so-named because of the reddish appearance of the cooler giant stars. ... >
read more
Supergiant Supergiants are the most massive stars. Supergiants can have masses from 10 to 70 solar masses and brightness from 30,000 up to hundreds of thousands ... >
read more
Stellar evolution In astronomy, stellar evolution is the sequence of changes that a star undergoes during its lifetime; the hundreds of thousands, millions or billions ... >
read more
Planetary nebula A planetary nebula is an astronomical object consisting of a glowing shell of gas and plasma formed by certain types of stars at the end of their ... >
read more
Red supergiant star Red supergiants are supergiant stars of spectral type K-M and a luminosity class of I. They are the largest stars in the universe in terms of ... >
read more
Nuclear fusion In physics, nuclear fusion is the process by which multiple nuclei join together to form a heavier nucleus. It is accompanied by the release or ... >
read more
Physical cosmology Physical cosmology, as a branch of astrophysics, is the study of the large-scale structure of the universe and is concerned with fundamental ... >
read more
Atom In chemistry and physics, an atom is the smallest particle of a chemical element that retains its chemical properties. An atom consists of a dense ... >
read more
Note: This page refers to an article that is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the article Stellar nucleosynthesis at Wikipedia.org. See the Wikipedia copyright page for more details.
Recommend this page on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:
Other bookmarking and sharing tools: