Question: •could there be a supernova that could seperare every mixture and compound into its individual elemental atom

Evan Keane answered on 21 Jun 2011:

Actually it sounds strange but the opposite happens!

I mentioned before in several answers that stars have nuclear fusion occuring inside them to power themselves. They “fuse” 2 hydrogens together to make a helium, then 3 heliums together to make a carbon, and so on and so forth to make nitrogen, oxygen, silicon and iron. BUT when it gets to iron there is a problem. You do not get any energy out if you combine two irons. Actually you need to put energy in to make it happen. So when a star reaches this stage it usually has a supernova as it cannot fuse iron. But in the stuff that has exploded outwards (like in this picture ) it is hot. And this heat can act as the energy input needed to make iron nuclei combine, and then even heavier things to be created! 😀