[sxcurry]

"(Only as those stars exploded did they forge heavier elements such as oxygen and spew them into the cosmos.)" I don't think this is correct - can't elements up to Iron be created through fusion in the stellar core?

[simonh]

Yes, but a lot of that occurs in the (relatively) brief phase near the end of the lives of very massive stars as their cores collapse. Once they run out of fuel for that process they explode in a Type II Supernova.

[hinkley]

Today I learned about the Carbon-Nitrogen-Oxygen fusion cycle:

https://www.britannica.com/science/CNO-cycle

Apparently you don't create oxygen in stars by smashing two beryllium together.

Edit: interestingly, this article provides a different path, claiming C + He = O

https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/1727-how-elements-...

[vincnetas]

but you need a star to explode in order to "spew them into the cosmos".

[warble]

Stars micro-nova too, 'burp' so to speak which sends heavier elements out. It's also a pathway to create heavy elements.

[freemint]

A sufficiently fast and heavy collision with a star might also do the trick but that is a thing we haven't observed.