What would be the heaviest element we could expect a star the Sun's mass to make in its lifetime?

Is our Sun's ability to fuse elements into heavier ones (once it gains the ability to fuse helium) limited by its mass? What I mean is, would our Sun be hindered by its comparatively small mass in terms of the heaviest element it can fuse before it runs out of enough energy, or is iron usually the limit as a rule of thumb? Perhaps I'm also wrong with the iron limit, but I've always heard that a star's lifetime basically ends when its core becomes iron and it subsequently implodes.What would be the heaviest element we could expect a star the Sun's mass to make in its lifetime?The Sun does not have enough mass to go beyond oxygen and carbon production. There may be a few trace elements larger due to quantum cirumstances. It will not reach the iron stage.





http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/RedGia鈥?/a>What would be the heaviest element we could expect a star the Sun's mass to make in its lifetime?
George is right, although small amounts of other elements up to 26Al (which decays to 26Mg) are also formed.



It is true that elements up to around mass number 56 can be formed with release of energy, but our Sun isn't big enough to ever get hot enough to overcome the electrostatic nuclear repulsions necessary for the "silicon burning" that occurs leading to this in more massive stars.What would be the heaviest element we could expect a star the Sun's mass to make in its lifetime?I'm not 100% sure but i think Iron is indeed the heaviest element that our sun will make, at the end of its life cycle. And yes, it is limited by its mass, the heavier/larger the star is, the heavier elements it will manage to produce (i think oxygen along with nickel are the heavier ones (pardon me if I'm wrong, i really have to brush up on this))What would be the heaviest element we could expect a star the Sun's mass to make in its lifetime?
Iron is the expected end result. The sun doesn't have the mass to go beyond that point.What would be the heaviest element we could expect a star the Sun's mass to make in its lifetime?Iron is the end of the road for massive stars, although the probably do produce some nickel 56, but that decays pretty rapidly into iron 56.



"... Iron ( /藞a瑟.蓹rn/ or /藞a瑟蓹rn/) is a chemical element with the symbol Fe (Latin: ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element in the whole planet Earth, forming much of Earth's core, and it is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust. It is produced in abundance as a result of fusion in high-mass stars, where the production of nickel-56 (which decays to iron) is the last nuclear fusion reaction that is exothermic, becoming the last element to be produced before collapse of a supernova leads to events that scatter the precursor radionuclides of iron into space.



Like other Group 8 elements, iron exists in a wide range of oxidation states, 鈭? to + 6, although +2 and +3 are the most common. Elemental iron occurs in meteoroids and other low oxygen environments, but is reactive to oxygen and water. Fresh iron surfaces appear lustrous silvery-gray, but oxidize in normal air to give iron oxides, also known as rust. Unlike many other metals which form passivating oxide layers, iron oxides occupy more volume than iron metal, and thus iron oxides flake off and expose fresh surfaces for corrosion. ..."



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron



The sun, as said by some one else, doesn't have enough mass to produce anything heavier than carbon, and it's already producing some of that through the CNO cycle that uses the helium nuclei produced by the proton-proton-process that is creating the helium in the sun.



"...The CNO cycle (for carbon-nitrogen-oxygen), or sometimes Bethe-Weizs盲cker-cycle, is one of two sets of fusion reactions by which stars convert hydrogen to helium, the other being the proton-proton chain. Theoretical models show that the CNO cycle is the dominant source of energy in stars more massive than about 1.3 times the mass of the sun. The proton-proton chain is more important in stars the mass of the sun or less. This difference stems from temperature dependency differences between the two reactions; pp-chain reactions start occurring at temperatures around 4脳106 K, making it the dominant force in smaller stars. The CNO chain starts occurring at approximately 13脳106 K[citation needed], but its energy output rises much faster with increasing temperatures. At approximately 17脳106 K, the CNO cycle starts becoming the dominant source of energy.[1] The Sun has a core temperature of around 15.7脳106 K and only 1.7% of 4He nuclei being produced in the Sun are born in the CNO cycle. The CNO process was independently proposed by Carl von Weizs盲cker[2] and Hans Bethe[3] in 1938 and 1939, respectively.



In the CNO cycle, four protons fuse, using carbon, nitrogen and oxygen isotopes as a catalyst, to produce one alpha particle, two positrons and two electron neutrinos. The positrons will almost instantly annihilate with electrons, releasing energy in the form of gamma rays. The neutrinos escape from the star carrying away some energy. The carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen isotopes are in effect one nucleus that goes through a number of transformations in an endless loop. ..."



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CNO_cycle