helium flash

  • What Happens After Helium Fusion?

    What Happens After Helium Fusion?

    Back in August — sorry I took so long! — we talked about the helium flash, an explosion that occurs within stars when helium nuclei begin to fuse within a degenerate core. So…this is not what the helium flash would…

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  • Helium Ignition in Stars

    Helium Ignition in Stars

    When I first began learning about stars, I expected them to be violent and chaotic places. And to an extent, they certainly are. Pressures are unbelievably high in their cores — high enough to smash protons together, and this is…

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