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After a star has converted most of its Hydrogen into Helium, it can no longergenerate the energy to maintain its size against its own gravity and begins to contract. This contraction heats of the interior and if the heat is great enough (because the star is massive enough) it can begin a new fusion process, turning Helium into Carbon. However, this process is nowhere as efficient as the Hydrogen-Helium one and a star in this stage will only last a small fraction of the time it spent as a H-He factory.

Soon (cosmically speaking), the Helium will be exhausted and a new contraction will begin, which MAY, if the mass is enough, start a new fusion process with the Carbon to produce Oxygen, Neon, Silicon. Each stage is less efficient than the one before and when the star starts making Iron, its on its last cycle. Turning Iron into other elements CONSUMES energy rather than releases it.

In exceptional cases, the mass of the star may be great enough that the Iron is put to what is rather inelegantly called "Maximum Scrunch," and it rebounds with a burst of neutrinos followed by a stellar explosion we call a Supernova. Supernovae are responsible for making all the elements more complex than Iron.

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