There's been much discussion recently about the part that Iron plays in what happens in our oceans.
That reminded me of a documentary series I saw recently. It appears that all the Iron that exists in our planet, and elsewhere in our universe for that matter, originated from the disintegration of Supernovas .... to quote ...
"But massive stars, many times larger than our own sun, may create a Supernova when their core's fusion process runs out of fuel. Star fusion provides a constant outward pressure, which exists in balance with the star's own mass-driven, inward gravitational pull. When fusion slows, outbound pressure drops and the star's core begins to condense under gravity, becoming ever denser and hotter.
To outward appearances, such stars begin growing, swelling into bodies known as red super giants. But at their cores shrinking continues, making a supernova imminent.
When a star's core contracts to a critical point a series of nuclear reactions is unleashed. This fusion staves off core collapse for a time, but only until the core is composed largely of <b.Iron, which can no longer sustain star fusion.
In a microsecond, the core may reach temperatures of billions of degrees Celsius. Iron atoms become crushed so closely together that the repulsive forces of their nuclei create a recoil of the squeezed core, a bounce that causes the star to explode as a supernova and give birth to an enormous, super heated, shock wave."
.... just thought I'd add that as a bit of trivia, although I'm fairly sure it's not news to some on this board. |
