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An Iron Clad Question.
Posted: Fri Oct 01, 2010 9:16 pm
by The Code
The moment A supper massive star, Starts fussing carbon to Iron/Heavy mettle's etc etc. They say the big star's life is over, within seconds. This is my Question. Why does not, The falling in of 20 or so, heavy Iron core planets, falling into the sun, have any effect on its fusion? or Did it?
tc
Re: An Iron Clad Question.
Posted: Sat Oct 02, 2010 12:28 am
by Chris Peterson
The Code wrote:The moment A supper massive star, Starts fussing carbon to Iron/Heavy mettle's etc etc. They say the big star's life is over, within seconds. This is my Question. Why does not, The falling in of 20 or so, heavy Iron core planets, falling into the sun, have any effect on its fusion? or Did it?
Iron doesn't poison the operation of a star. It's simply the end of the fusion chain- when lighter elements such as silicon have produced iron. Beyond this, fusion consumes more energy than it releases. You can't fuse the iron and produce energy, so the star collapses since there isn't enough radiation pressure to withstand the force of gravity.
Any iron that has been added to our Sun by infalling bodies is tiny compared with the mass of the Sun itself. And whatever iron ended up in planets is small compared with what remained in the Sun during its formation. Adding a fraction of a percent more iron to the Sun's mixture has no significant effect. There are many elements found in the Sun, but by far and away the main ones are hydrogen and helium. Currently, the Sun's interior is only hot enough to fuse the hydrogen. All other elements are unaltered.