Describe the helium flash and why it occurs

What will be an ideal response?


When the core of a red giant has reached a temperature of 100 million K, helium fusion can occur. With helium fusion the temperature rises but the pressure does not because it is the electron degenerate pressure which is holding up the core and it is independent of the temperature. Increased pressure would expand the core and cool it but this does not happen. The increase in temperature makes the fusion occur faster, which raises the temperature more and produces a runaway explosion of fusion known as the helium flash.

Physics & Space Science

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A cubical gaussian surface is bisected by a large sheet of charge, parallel to its top and bottom faces. No other charges are nearby. Over how many of the cube’s faces is the electric field zero?

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Physics & Space Science

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, attempts to precisely measure the astronomical unit relied largely on rare

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The 5d subshell can contain how many electrons when filled?

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Physics & Space Science