Imagine This Old Prison in Rio is a Dying star like Beetlejuice There There is the bright Surface
Shining off Into Space as I descend Deeper and Deeper Into the Prison the
Conditions Would Become Hotter and Hotter
Denser and denser until
Down There The Heart of the Star is the Core and
It's in There That all the ingredients of [life] are Made
Deep in its Core the Star is Fighting a futile Battle against its Own Gravity
As it Desperately Tries to stop Itself Collapsing under its Own weight
New Elements Are Made in A sequence of separate Stages
Stage One, Is while There is still a supply of Hydrogen to Burn
Whilst the Stars Burn in Hydrogen to helium in the Core vast Amounts of Energy are Released and That Energy Escapes
Literally [Creating] an Outward Pressure Which Balances [The] Force of Gravity and
While it holds the Star Off and Keeps it Stable
But Eventually the Hydrogen in The core will run out and at that point the Fusion Reactions will stop
no more Energy will be Released and [That]
Outward Pressure will Disappear Now at that Point the core will start to Collapse
Very Rapidly Leaving a Shell
of Hydrogen and Helium Behind
Beneath This Shell as the core Collapses the Temperature Rises again
until at a hundred Million degrees Stage Two Stars and Helium Nuclear Inter [Fuse] Together
Helium Fusion Does Two [Things]
Firstly More Energy is Released and so the Collapse is halted
But Secondly Two more Elements Are Produced in That Process
Carbon
Oxygen, Two Elements Vital for life
So this is where all the Carbon in The Universe Comes from your every Atom of Carbon in my Hand
Every Atom of Carbon in Every Living Thing on the Planet
Was Produced in The [Heart] of A dying Star?
There Compared to the Lifetime of the Star The Creation Process of Carbon and Oxygen Is over in The blink of an eye
Because in Only About a million Years the supply of Helium in the core Is used Up and
For Stars as Massive as the sun that's where Fusion stops because There isn't enough
Gravitational Energy To Compress the Core Any Further and Restart Fusion but For
massive Stars
Like Betelgeuse The Fusion Process Can Continue
When the helium runs out Gravity Takes over again and the Collapse Continues?
The Temperature Rises Once More Launching Stage 3
in Which Carbon Fuses Into Magnesium Neon Sodium and Aluminium
And so it Goes on [Core-Collapse]
Followed By the next Stage of Fusion to create more Elements
each Stage Hotter and Shorter Than the last and
[Eventually] in A final Stage that lasts only A couple of Days the heart of the Star Is
Transformed Into Almost pure iron
Whose chemical Symbol is Fe. This is where the Fusion Process stops.
In its Millions of Years of life the star has Made all the Common Elements
The Stuff That Makes Up 99% of the Earth
The Core is Now A solid Ball [of] Those Elements Stacked on Top of each other in Layers
On the Outside There's a Shell of Hydrogen?
Beneath it A layer of Helium
Then Carbon and Oxygen and All the other Elements all the way Down to the very Heart of the Star
and Once That has Fused Into Solid iron
The Star Has Only Seconds Left to live
When a star runs out of fuel then it can, no longer release Energy Through Fusion Reactions
and then There's only one Thing that can happen
{explosion}
In About the Same amount of Time it Takes This Prison Block to crumble the entire Star Falls in on Itself