What is the heaviest element that the sun can fuse?
Also, what is the heaviest element any star can fuse? What happens to a star after that? The heaviest element that our Sun produces is probably silicon; the core temperature and pressure would need to be MUCH higher to produce heavier elements. The heaviest element that can be produced in ANY star is iron. The reason for this is something called the “packing fraction curve”. As light elements are fused into heavier elements, they release energy; this is how the Sun and other stars work, by fusing hydrogen into helium. Toward the end of a star’s life, the temperature and pressure increase enough to fuse helium into carbon, and then carbon into heavier elements, but each stage releases less and less energy. Finally, when elements fuse into iron, you can get no more energy out. To fuse iron into heavier things, or anything into elements heavier than iron, you must put energy IN. When a star begins fusing iron into heavy elements, it suddenly stops producing energy to support the star agai
