DECRYPTION – A scientist had the original idea of using an industrial plasma torch to produce the microscopic grains which emerge from the large stellar forges, and seed the entire Universe with more or less complex carbon molecules.
Stars don't just produce light. They are also real dust factories. This will be the case for our Sun in a few billion years. Once it begins to use up its fuel, the subtle balance between gravity, which causes it to contract, and thermonuclear forces, which cause it to expand, will be disrupted. Its heart will then collapse on itself, to the point of triggering new nuclear reactions which will have the effect of pushing back its outer layers. A new, more unstable balance, between a very dense core and a very tenuous envelope, will then be established. Our star will have become a red giant.
In this particular configuration, the outer layers are driven by powerful convection movements. All “metallic” elements formed by nuclear fusion reactions during the life of the star (in astrophysics, this means anything heavier than hydrogen and helium…
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