Listening to that radio program got me thinking ahead toward this Lenten season. The iron in my blood, the calcium in my bones, the iodine in my thyroid all come from these awesome events. Turns out, nearly all the heavy elements in the universe are believed to come from this kind of stellar event. These stars collapse in on themselves forcing the atomic particles together so quickly that they then explode in a violent reaction and spread heavy elements like iron and carbon far and wide in their corner of the universe. The gravitational pull of their dense cores overcomes the energy from their fusion reactions. Supernovae occur at the death of some stars when they use up their fuel supply of lighter elements like hydrogen and helium in their process of nuclear fusion. I recently listened to a discussion on NPR about supernovae.
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