Answer:
B. Nuclear fusion
Explanation:
- Nuclear fusion is the process in which small nuclei (such as hydrogen) fuse together into heavier nuclei (for example, helium). In such process, the final mass of the product is less than the sum of the masses of the initial nuclei, therefore the mass which 'disappeared' has been converted into energy, according to Einstein's equation:
[tex]E=\Delta m c^2[/tex]
where
[tex]\Delta m[/tex] is the difference of mass between products and reactants
c is the speed of light
Because c is a very large value ([tex]c=3.0\cdot 10^8 m/s[/tex]), the amount of energy released during nuclear fusion is very huge, even for very small masses. This is the process that occurs inside the core of a star, and because of that, stars are able to produce very huge amounts of energy.
