How did nuclear elements form and why are they so powerful?
In: Planetary Science
Stars start off by fusing hydrogen into helium. In doing so, the helium nucleus has slightly less mass than the hydrogen it started with. This missing mass was converted to energy (E=mc^(2))
Eventually, the core starts fusing helium into heavier elements, again turning a small amount of mass to energy.
This process repeats until, eventually, it reaches iron. Iron is the first element that you get less energy out than you put in. That extra energy grts stored as mass. When this happens, the energy output of the star drops and the outer layers of the star collapse in and the slam into the core with so much energy that it makes all of the other elements up to plutonium. (Neptunium and plutonium are only made in trace amounts)
Those elements larger than iron, when you break them apart, they release that extra energy they stored as mass, giving us a massive amount of energy from E=mc^2
Larger elements store more energy, and eventually, they have so much energy that they spontaneously release some along with a particle through radioactive decay. Splitting an atom just releases a ton of it at once.
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