system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: If the densest element a star can form is iron, then where do other denser elements come from?

Uranium is the densest naturally occurring element, or so I've been told. A star can form elements in it's core through fusion, and iron is as dense as it gets.

So how do we end up with elements denser than that. Where are precious metals and rare Earth metals, among other things, formed?
gpt
Iron is the densest element a star can form through fusion.  Fortunately, that's not all stars do.  At the end of their lives they blow up, and that generates all the heavier elements as it distributes everything else into space.