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Concept

Triple-alpha process

The image depicts four transparent spheres connected at their centers, with red cores, symbolizing the triple-alpha process where helium nuclei combine to form carbon.

The nuclear reaction by which stars fuse three helium-4 nuclei, called alpha particles, into a single carbon-12 nucleus. It runs in two steps: two helium nuclei briefly form beryllium-8, which a third helium nucleus must hit before the beryllium decays in 10^-16 seconds. The reaction is rescued from near-impossibility by the Hoyle resonance and is the source of essentially all carbon in the universe.

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