Mondo Knows Facts
Most heavy elements were forged in stars
Calcium in your bones and iron in your blood were made inside supernovae Fusion in stellar cores builds elements up to iron, releasing energy along the way. Heavier ones need the violent conditions of a supernova or a neutron star collision. Those elements then mix into new stars and planets. It sits in Mondo's space collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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Tags: elements, supernovae, origins
Most heavy elements were forged in stars: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Calcium in your bones and iron in your blood were made inside supernovae. The figure is taken from NASA Science, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a space fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.