Do all stars eventually fuse helium in their cores?

Question

I did read that High-mass stars never initiate a helium flash, and they attain central temps high enough to fuse carbon. These stars become red supergiants, forming heavier and heavier elements in their cores at an increasingly rapid pace, and eventually die explosively.

Answer 1

it seems that some did not read this question and some did.

the answer is no.

all stars begin fusing hydrogen into helium, but the least massive stars are incapable of compressing the matter in their cores and raising its temperature enuf to enable them to fuse helium into carbon. this requires a temperature of 100 000 000 kelvins. the sun will be able to fuse helium into carbon, but it will be incapable of making anything more massive than carbon.

there has not actually been enuf time since stars began forming some thirteen billion years ago, more or less, for the least massive stars to run out of hydrogen nuclei anyway.

Answer 2

No. Red dwarfs have such low mass that they never can. Red dwarfs fuse hydrogen to helium using the proton-proton chain reaction process. Red dwarfs never reach the next step of fusing helium into lithium via the triple alpha process because the low mass of the star doesn't allow for a high enough temp/density in the core.

Answer 3

Yes. Eventually, out sun in 5-6 billion years will use up all its hydrogen, and its core will become helium. It will then become a red giant, increase its volume a billion fold, and envelope the earth in a ball of million degree plasma.

Of course, the helium will fuse into a heavier element, and so on until it becomes iron. Iron is the point of mass defect, when it can no longer by thermonuclearly fused and the nuclear reaction will cease. At this point, the star will 1. explode 2. die 3. collapse or 4. collapse and turn into a black hole

Answer 4

I think that for most stars, upon leaving the main sequence, there's a period during which the core collapses as the envelope expands, and the collapse of the core triggers a rapid fusion of helium to carbon. It doesn't take long to run through this phase though, relatively speaking.

Answer 5

All stars, including red giants, begin their lives by fusing hydrogen into helium. I'm not aware that red giants, nor any other stars, that evolve directly into a carbon-burning stage without first passing through the preliminary stage of helium fusion.

Answer 6

Stars quite bypass by a cycle. It starts off with a fusion reaction to sort Helium, then it is going right into a fission reaction splitting it decrease back into 2 Hydrogen atoms. The cycle keeps until the atoms deplete or disperse.

Answer 7

All stars initially start or form into a star by the coalescing of hydrogen gas usually found in nebulae. It depends upon what stage of its life the star is in as to what elements are undergoing the fusion process. Search for the Hertzsprug-Russell diagram to see what all the stages in the life of a star are. Mass decides what stages the star gets to evolve into and how it will eventually end up.
Right now, our Sun is converting approx 400-600 million tons of hydrogen into helium every second.

Answer 8

No. Below some size limit, red dwarfs will never develop enough internal pressure to initiate helium fusion.

Answer 9

All stars fuse hydrogen into helium

Answer 10

No one can say that 100% for sure.