If stars can’t fuse iron, where do it and all other heavier elements come from?

Question

If stars can’t fuse iron, where do it and all other heavier elements come from?

In: 7

Answer 1

When stars go supernova and explode, the pressures and temperatures of the explosion itself are higher than what the star had when it was a regular star. The supernova explosion is very fast, but still in that brief moment atoms are squeezed with enough energy to go past iron.