St. Louis Science Center: Astronomy Fact Of The Day: February 14, 2022

St. Louis MO

15 February, 2022

9:31 AM

Description

Press release from St. Louis Science Center: February 14, 2022 Stars run on a process called nuclear fusion, where elements such as hydrogen and helium are fused together under immense heat and pressure to create new, heavier elements. In supergiant stars, this process continues creating new elements until iron is formed, which is too heavy and requires more energy than available to fuse together. The high amounts of energy needed to form the heavier elements found in our universe come primarily from supernovae and star collisions. This press release was produced by St. Louis Science Center. The views expressed here are the author's own.