system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Does fission occur inside of a star? If so, how far down the periodic table does fission occur inside of a star?
gpt
Fission does not usually occur in significant amounts in stars, at least fission in the exothermal sense (releasing energy, like in a nuclear reactor for example).

However! In the death of very massive stars, rapid fission of the Iron core into Helium can occur in a process called *photodisintegration*. This process is however endothermic, requiring much more energy than it releases. Thus, it only occurs in situations where temperatures and pressures are very high (read: dying massive stars). This process makes the core pressure drop momentarily, causing the star to collapse and become a black hole rather than explode as a hypernova!