khournos t1_j6p339u wrote on January 31, 2023 at 10:06 PM Reply to Eli5 Why can’t Stars use Iron in nuclear fusion? by Drippidy They can. They do. Iron is just the threshold where fusion starts to "consume" energy instead of "releasing" it, which is supplied by the gravitational pressure of the, at this point, collapsing star. Permalink 1
khournos t1_j6p339u wrote
Reply to Eli5 Why can’t Stars use Iron in nuclear fusion? by Drippidy
They can. They do. Iron is just the threshold where fusion starts to "consume" energy instead of "releasing" it, which is supplied by the gravitational pressure of the, at this point, collapsing star.