Elements up through iron are made inside stars!

The Sun shines because it is making helium out of hydrogen.

Inside the Sun, four hydrogen nuclei combine to form one helium nucleus.

Every second,
100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 helium atoms
(10³⁸) are created by this nuclear fusion process!

Four hydrogen nuclei weigh more than a helium nucleus ...

Some mass is missing ...

0.7% (7/1000) of the hydrogen's mass
is converted into energy for each
helium nucleus formed!

Einstein's E = mc²
powers the Sun
by converting 4.7 million tons
of its mass into energy
every second!

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