Gaming1 min ago
Earth Iron Core
Where does the earth's iron core come from?
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Last night, after a bottle of red, my answer seemed perfectly logical - this morning I am less confident, but am committed now. I think it's because the nuclear reaction inside stars starts as the joining of hydrogen atoms to form helium, releasing huge amounts of energy. When the hydrogen runs out, helium is fused to form the next heaviest element, and so on until the star gets to iron - at which point the reaction requires energy rather than produces it, so the star starts to die. Much iron is formed, plus the heavier elements as the star burns out. I am sure someone much cleverer than me will give a better explanation!
Pretty good kags...
Actually when a star above a certain mass tries to produce iron which as you point out consumes more energy that it supports there is nothing supporting it any more and it collapses in on itself...violently, very very violently. This produces conditions where pretty much all possible elements are produced (including a lot of iron).
These Supernovas are bright, but relatively rare. There's not been one in our galaxy since the invention of the telescope but during their occurence they produce more energy than the rest of the galaxy put together - lts say you wouldn't want to be standing nearby!
Our solar system will have been formed out of the debris of an earlier star that went Supernova, during the period of planet formation the earth was effectively molten from all the bombardment so heavier elements like Iron, Gold Uranium etc sank deeper inside
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