In massive stars, three helium atoms fuse together, forming a carbon nucleus. This reaction heats the core of the star. The net mass of the three helium nuclei must therefore be
A) higher than that of the carbon nucleus.
B) less than that of the carbon nucleus.
C) the same as that of the carbon nucleus (mass is always conserved).
A
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What feature(s) of this spectrum indicate(s) that Mars appears red in color?
A) the wavelength of the peak labeled 3 B) the wavelength of the peak labeled 6 C) the fact that the intensity of region 4 is higher than that of region 2 D) the fact that the peak labeled 3 is higher than the peak labeled 6
Just as a low-mass main sequence star runs out of fuel in its core, it actually becomes brighter. How is this possible?
A) Helium fusion gives more energy than hydrogen fusion does, based on masses. B) Its outer envelope is stripped away and we see the brilliant core. C) The core contracts, raising the temperature and increasing the size of the region of hydrogen shell-burning. D) It explodes. E) It immediately starts to fuse helium.
A ball rolls off the edge of a table at the same time another ball drops vertically from the same table. The ball to hit the floor first is the
A) rolling ball. B) dropped ball. C) both hit at the same time
The width of a nuclear state is found to be 10-2 eV. The corresponding lifetime of this state is
A) 10-36 s. B) 10-2 s. C) 10-4 s. D) 4 × 10-13 s. E) 7 × 10-14 s.