What form does the iron inside a star take? And how does…
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What form does the iron inside a star take? And how does it end up as a solid chunk of meteorite?
I understand the processes involved in the formation of the elements through fusion, but can't for the life of me find an easy-to-grasp description of what it means to say iron (and all of the other elements) is created.
Under those conditions, surely it's not any kind of metal as we'd know it? Is it some kind of gas, or plasma?
I read recently that multiple Earths' worth of gold can be formed when 2 neutron stars collide, and that all the gold on earth likely comes from such a collision - in what form is that gold blast out into the universe, and how on earth (pun intended) does it end up a single shiny nugget somewhere?
Surely when a supernova explodes there aren't chunks of iron flying out? And yet I have a small piece of iron meteorite..
How did it get from the heart of a star into my desk drawer?!
How did it... find itself, in all that nothingness?
#space
source
I understand the processes involved in the formation of the elements through fusion, but can't for the life of me find an easy-to-grasp description of what it means to say iron (and all of the other elements) is created.
Under those conditions, surely it's not any kind of metal as we'd know it? Is it some kind of gas, or plasma?
I read recently that multiple Earths' worth of gold can be formed when 2 neutron stars collide, and that all the gold on earth likely comes from such a collision - in what form is that gold blast out into the universe, and how on earth (pun intended) does it end up a single shiny nugget somewhere?
Surely when a supernova explodes there aren't chunks of iron flying out? And yet I have a small piece of iron meteorite..
How did it get from the heart of a star into my desk drawer?!
How did it... find itself, in all that nothingness?
#space
source
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