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  2. Triple-alpha process - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple-alpha_process

    As a side effect of the process, some carbon nuclei fuse with additional helium to produce a stable isotope of oxygen and energy: 12 6 C + 4 2 He → 16 8 O + γ (+7.162 MeV) Nuclear fusion reactions of helium with hydrogen produces lithium-5, which also is highly unstable, and decays back into smaller nuclei with a half-life of 3.7 × 10 −22 s.

  3. Alpha process - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_process

    The other class is a cycle of reactions called the triple-alpha process, which consumes only helium, and produces carbon. [1] The alpha process most commonly occurs in massive stars and during supernovae. Both processes are preceded by hydrogen fusion, which produces the helium that fuels both the triple-alpha process and the alpha ladder ...

  4. Supernova nucleosynthesis - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova_nucleosynthesis

    Supernova nucleosynthesis is the nucleosynthesis of chemical elements in supernova explosions.. In sufficiently massive stars, the nucleosynthesis by fusion of lighter elements into heavier ones occurs during sequential hydrostatic burning processes called helium burning, carbon burning, oxygen burning, and silicon burning, in which the byproducts of one nuclear fuel become, after ...

  5. CNO cycle - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNO_cycle

    Under typical conditions found in stars, catalytic hydrogen burning by the CNO cycles is limited by proton captures. Specifically, the timescale for beta decay of the radioactive nuclei produced is faster than the timescale for fusion. Because of the long timescales involved, the cold CNO cycles convert hydrogen to helium slowly, allowing them ...

  6. Helium flash - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium_flash

    Fusion of helium in the core of low-mass stars. A helium flash is a very brief thermal runaway nuclear fusion of large quantities of helium into carbon through the triple-alpha process in the core of low-mass stars (between 0.8 solar masses (M ☉) and 2.0 M ☉ [1]) during their red giant phase.

  7. Horizontal branch - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizontal_branch

    The horizontal branch (HB) is a stage of stellar evolution that immediately follows the red-giant branch in stars whose masses are similar to the Sun's. Horizontal-branch stars are powered by helium fusion in the core (via the triple-alpha process) and by hydrogen fusion (via the CNO cycle) in a shell surrounding the core.

  8. File:Phase diagram of Helium-4-en.svg - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Phase_diagram_of...

    This file contains additional information, probably added from the digital camera or scanner used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details may not fully reflect the modified file.

  9. Photodisintegration - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photodisintegration

    Photodisintegration (also called phototransmutation, or a photonuclear reaction) is a nuclear process in which an atomic nucleus absorbs a high-energy gamma ray, enters an excited state, and immediately decays by emitting a subatomic particle.