how do stars make all other elements in universe?

Question

if stars are fusion reactors of the energy released by the fusion of two hydrogen atoms into helium,
1. how and why is it that astronomers and physicists say that stars are the thing that makes all other elements? for example, how can a star make carbon, sodium, gold, or oxygen?
2. then how would such elements get dissipated throughout solar systems?
3. where are the elements other than hydrogen? are those elements only on planets, and if not, where else do they exist in universe (other than inside of black holes)?
4. and how does a star control how planets are made?
5. how does a star cause a certain balance of certain elements to exists on one given planet and not on another? (for example, on earth, but not so much on jupiter)?
6. and one other thing: how does hydrogen eventually form into cloudlike structures in space, eventually making nebulae whereby [where] stars get born?
7. how are we so sure of all of this? what empirical proof do we have?

Answer 1

1) Yes, a star CAN make oxygen - everything from helium to iron. Just by fusing atoms. Two hydrogen + two neutrons makes helium, two helium make boron, etc. It's not in the same state you'll find it in our atmosphere, but it's there.

2) Stars die, exploding and sending elements into space.

3) Nope. They are in other stars that came later (population I and II stars), in planets, asteriods, etc.

4) The star doesn't. Planets are formed out of leftover material from the protostellar nebula - leftover after the star formed.

5) It doesn't. It's just how it turns out due to gravity interacting with the elements.

6) It collapses under gravity, and it may be set spinning by the passing of a massive object (another star or black hole, for example).

7) We see it all happening somewhere in the universe. Look up proto-planetary nebula, supernova, and spectroscopy in particular.

Edit: Thanks, Tim! Didn't get around to that.

Answer 2

Stars are huge, IMMENSE, fusion reactors. All of them start by fusing Hydrogen into Helium. Once the Hydrogen is depleted, the star begins to convert the Helium, and progressively heavier elements in the same manner. Each time there is a switch to a new element as the primary source of fusion material, the energy level goes up, the star burns with more heat and expands. Once the star has reached the state where all that is left is Iron, the star cannot make the energy level jump to the next stage. At that point, the star either cools to become a brown dwarf, or collapses on itself so violently that it creates a Super Nova. Such events result in remanants such as a Pulsar (Nuetron Star, composed completely of densely packed Nuetrons) or, in the most extreme cases, Black Holes, whose gravitational fields are so intense they appear to rip a hole in the fabric of space/time. Super Nova explosions also create all elements heavier than Iron.

All of these are attendant on fundemental forces of nature (gravity, electromagnetism, the weak nuclear force and the strong nuclear force) we can read a stars composition by using a mass spectrometer (certain elements emit light at different frequencies). Einstiens theory of relativity (not so much a theory anymore but remains so because some aspects cannot be tested) shows how stars convert matter into energy.

The explosions of Super Nova are extremely powerfull and send massive amounts of matter across space. Imagine a volcano erupting and spreading ash and lava, then consider it a billion or more fold.

Stars are formed when immense clouds of material, mostly Hydrogen accumulate in one area due to gravity. Once the force of gravity has become large enough to ignite nuclear fusion, forces from that reaction push matter away from the force of gravity. Local to the reaction, the matter stays and becomes part of the star. The matter that is pushed away becomes the planets and other objects.

What is the proof. The single greatest item of proof that all of this is correct is the background radiation from the Big Bang.

None of this discounts God. I personally believe that he created it all. I am just not a creational theory supporter

Answer 3

Wow big question,matter changes by striping or adding electrons throungh heat presure and chemical changes like dinasaurs to oil or coal to diamonds.and when a star dies it blasts into tiny dust particles that form nebulas. as those cling together and get biger they build a mass large enough to ignight and form a star and thats the cycle of a star condesed into a paragraph.
What makes the differances are the amounts of heat presure and combination of complex elements in a given area of space.
evidence of this is our own planets geological layers. and space observation.put it all together and you see things change from impossable to probable to fairly common.
does that help?

Answer 4

Just to expand on eri's excellent answer, stars will also make elements larger than iron. During novae, the amount of energy available is unbelievable; and the runaway fusion reactions that take place in that environment create incredibly large atoms.

(Many of them are radioactive and decay away on their own; but they are produced in the hearts of stars nevertheless.)

Answer 5

lots of the climate are made in stars. Hydrogen is the main exception. It replaced into no longer made in stars, yet via quark fusion during the vast Bang. the a number of helium interior the universe is made in stars, yet a number of it replaced into additionally made via the vast Bang. All heavier factors have been made interior stars.

Answer 6

My teeth are like stars...they come out at night.