||The Curve of The key to energy production in stars lies in
what nuclear physicists call the curve of binding energy, which
is illustrated in the following figure. Curve of binding energy.
This plot shows the amount of binding energy per nucleon (A
nucleon is either a neutron or a proton. The nucleon number is
the sum of the number of protons in a nucleus; thus, it is equal
to the atomic mass number) as a function of the atomic mass
number A. The energy units are MeV, which stands for "million
electron-volts", a standard unit of energy in This curve
indicates how stable atomic nuclei are; the higher the curve the
more stable the nucleus. Notice the characteristic shape, with a
peak near A=60. These nuclei (which are near iron in the
periodic table and are called the iron peak nuclei) are the most
stable in the Universe. The shape of this curve suggests two
possibilites for converting significant amounts of mass into
energy. From the curve of binding energy, the heaviest nuclei
are less stable than the nuclei