STELLAR NUCLEOSYNTHESIS:

Why Are Stars Important?
People may think of stars as just big, pretty balls of gas in the sky, but they actually play a key role in our life. First of all, our Sun is a star, and most people know that the Sun is what allows life to exist on Earth. Not ruling out the possibility of life elsewhere, we can conclude that other planets could not house life without similar stars to heat them. Stars also create most or all of the elements in our universe. Without them, the universe would be just a conglomeration of hydrogen.

How Do Stars Create Elements?
Stars create all elements from hydrogen in a process known as STELLAR NUCLEOSYNTHESIS. Because stars are so hot, the atoms composing them are in constant, frantic motion, so much so that this motion gives off energy. This is a characteristic of all plasmas, and is the reason why all stars give off heat. Because these atoms are moving at such incredibly high speeds, when two of them collide, the nuclei actually fuse together. This is known most commonly as SOLAR FUSION. So, if two hydrogen atoms fuse together, they create one helium atom. (One proton + one proton= two protons.)

How Do Stars Make Elements? (Continued)
Constant chemical reactions take place in the interior of stars. When stars fuse together two elements to form another, it is commonly referred to as "burning" the elements. As a star grows older, the lighter elements (such as hydrogen and helium) cease to exist, having all burned up into heavier elements. The star will continue to burn these heavier elements until it is no longer capable. When this happens, the star will implode on itself, unable to withstand its own gravity, in a spectacular and violent event known as a SUPERNOVA.

Applying Stars To Our Research
By studying the inner workings of stars, scientists have been able to create new (and sometimes dangerous) inventions and ways of furthering our knowledge. For example, the hydrogen bomb emulates the same types of violent chemical reactions. Nuclear fusion harnesses the energy given off by colliding atoms and uses it to our advantage. Particle accelerators speed up atoms in a long tunnel in the same type of reaction, allowing us to study more elusive types of particles and matter, such as the Higgs Boson and antimatter.

Adverse Effects
Stars are also, as expected, extremely dangerous. Aside from the fact that they are incredibly hot, they also implode when they can no longer create new matter. Explosively and violently. When our Sun eventually implodes, the resulting supernova will be enough to engulf the entire solar system, completely obliterating it. Not to mention, larger stars can sometimes form BLACK HOLES when they collapse, which are, again, extremely dangerous.

CITATIONS:

• "The Chemistry of Stars." Chemistry is Life. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 May 2014. .
• "How Do Stars Work?" NASA.gov. NASA, n.d. Web. 29 May 2014. .
• "Chemistry of the Sun." EarthGuide. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 May 2014. .

VOCABULARY wORDS

• Stellar nucleosynthesis- the process in which a star creates new elements
• Solar fusion- the process in which two atoms are forced to fuse together inside of a star
• Supernova- the violent implosion of a star after it is no longer able to burn elements
• Black holes- celestial bodies with extremely powerful gravity that attract matter