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From: rh@mit-eddie.UUCP (Randy Haskins)
Newsgroups: net.astro.expert
Subject: Re: Forming The Elements
Message-ID: <4579@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 29-Jun-85 15:21:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.4579
Posted: Sat Jun 29 15:21:58 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 30-Jun-85 02:31:52 EDT
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Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
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About forming the elements heavier than Fe:

It turns out that in its dying days (years, whatever), a star
will actually form the heavier elements by fusion.  The problem
is, this is an endothermic sort of thing; it requires more energy
than it produces.  As time goes on, the situation in the star is
going to head for its lowest energy state.  A supernova, on the
other hand, is a situation where a large amount of energy is
liberated in a short time, and the heavier elements will be
formed more than they would be inside the star.  Also, when the
supernova does its thing, it blows a lot of the material
(including the heavier elements it has formed) out into space, so
they won't be around it the star any more to be decayed by
fission.  A real astronomer could probably explain this better
than I did, but this is the gist of the situation as I understand
it.  Hope it helps.

-- 
Randwulf  (Randy Haskins);  Path= genrad!mit-eddie!rh