Triple-alpha nuclear fusion, illustration

Numéro d’image : 12947457
Triple-alpha nuclear fusion, illustration
Triple-alpha nuclear fusion, illustration. This is a set of nuclear fusion reactions by which helium nuclei (alpha particles) form heavier elements. Nuclei are shown as protons (red) and neutrons (green). At top, two helium-4 nuclei fuse to form a beryllium-8 nucleus. At centre, helium and beryllium fuse to form a carbon-12 nucleus. At bottom, helium and carbon fuse to form an oxygen-16 nucleus. The triple alpha process is dependent on carbon-12 and beryllium-8 having resonances with the same energy as helium-4. Most fusion in stars is of hydrogen, rather than helium. This relatively rare helium fusion process takes a long time to produce much carbon, and no significant amount of carbon was produced in the Big Bang. This means that stellar nucleosynthesis produces large amounts of carbon and oxygen, but only a small fraction of these elements is converted into neon and heavier elements.
Licence : Droits gérés
Crédit: Science Photo Library / TIM BROWN
Taille de l’image : 3661 px × 4882 px
Model Release : Non requis
Property Release : Non requis
Restrictions : -

Prix pour cette image À partir de 45 €

Produit vendu
(Calendrier, Carte postale, Carte de vœux, Impression sur textile, Packaging etc)
À partir de 45 €
Usage commercial
(Affichage, Annonce presse, Annonce TV, Carte, Digital - hors rés. sociaux, Digital - rés. sociaux etc)
À partir de 45 €
Éditorial
(Digital, Journal, Livre, Livre pratique, Magazine, Télévision etc)
À partir de 60 €
Usage non-commercial
(Digital - hors rés. sociaux, Digital - rés. sociaux etc)
À partir de 120 €

Mots clés

;