I appologize, as it may be a really dumb question....
So I was watching 'How the Universe Works'... and they tell me that the moment a Star starts to make iron, it is DOOMED.
Problem is they did not tell me much about the why. So the moment a Star starts making a heavy element as iron,... it is doomed and on the edge of collapse. It'll go BOOM.
The moment I heard that, numerous questions popped up in my head, like:
p1 - 1 iron atom dooms the Star?
p2 - How much iron needs a Star to produce before it collapses? if p1 is not valid.
p3 - If we shoot iron into a Star (in this example a still undetermined mass),... a Star that is not ready to die on its own,... will this collapse and make that star lethal prematurely?
The thought of p3 kinda scared me. Suppose we send a probe to Mercury (and it has iron in it most likely) and it accidently ends up in the sun. If p3 would be true, that would kinda suck, really really bad.
But as 'How the Universe Works'... did not provide me with an answer on my rapid thought processes,... I though I'd best ask it here.
A question never asked, is an answer never given.