An astronomer is a guest speaker at your school. She states that iron is the very last product in stellar fusion. Why would she
say that? Why wouldn’t elements in stars fuse to make larger atoms than iron? select one:
a. The star’s core has no more room left in the interior to fuse larger nuclides
b. It takes much more heat than the star has in its core to fuse iron with another atom.
c. Iron has a tightly bound nucleus, and atoms larger than iron are less stable and tend to undergo nuclear fission.
d. Iron is a metal, and metals cannot undergo fusion.
Iron is the very last product in stellar fusion is that; Iron has a tightly boundnucleus, and atoms larger than iron are less stable and tend to undergo nuclear fission.
The stability of an atom is dependent on the binding energy per nucleon of the atom.
The binding energy per nucleon of elements increases steadily until iron, we can see that from the curve very easily.
Beyond iron, we have exceeded the region of stable binding energy per nucleon of atoms. The atoms after iron in the curve are mostly unstable heavy nuclei.
