Besides mass, the elements heavier than helium can play a significant role in the evolution of stars.

Astronomers label all elements heavier than helium "metals", and call the chemical concentration of
these elements in a star, its metallicity. A star's metallicity can influence the time the star takes to
burn its fuel, and controls the formation of its magnetic fields, [82] which affects the strength of its
stellar wind.[83] Older, population II stars have substantially less metallicity than the younger,
population I stars due to the composition of the molecular clouds from which they formed. Over time,
such clouds become increasingly enriched in heavier elements as older stars die and shed portions
of their atmospheres.[84]
Post–main sequence
Main articles: Subgiant, Red giant, Horizontal branch, Red clump, and Asymptotic giant branch

Betelgeuse as seen by ALMA. This is the first time that ALMA has
observed the surface of a star and resulted in the highest-resolution image of Betelgeuse available.

As stars of at least 0.4 M☉[85] exhaust the supply of hydrogen at their core, they start to fuse hydrogen
in a shell surrounding the helium core. The outer layers of the star expand and cool greatly as they
transition into a red giant. In some cases, they will fuse heavier elements at the core or in shells
around the core. As the stars expand, they throw part of their mass, enriched with those heavier
elements, into the interstellar environment, to be recycled later as new stars. [86] In about 5 billion
years, when the Sun enters the helium burning phase, it will expand to a maximum radius of roughly
1 astronomical unit (150 million kilometres), 250 times its present size, and lose 30% of its current
mass.[77][87]
As the hydrogen-burning shell produces more helium, the core increases in mass and temperature.
In a red giant of up to 2.25 M☉, the mass of the helium core becomes degenerate prior to helium
fusion. Finally, when the temperature increases sufficiently, core helium fusion begins explosively in
what is called a helium flash, and the star rapidly shrinks in radius, increases its surface
temperature, and moves to the horizontal branch of the HR diagram. For more massive stars, helium
core fusion starts before the core becomes degenerate, and the star spends some time in the red
clump, slowly burning helium, before the outer convective envelope collapses and the star then
moves to the horizontal branch.[88]
After a star has fused the helium of its core, it begins fusing helium along a shell surrounding the hot
carbon core. The star then follows an evolutionary path called the asymptotic giant branch (AGB)
that parallels the other described red-giant phase, but with a higher luminosity. The more massive
AGB stars may undergo a brief period of carbon fusion before the core becomes degenerate. During
the AGB phase, stars undergo thermal pulses due to instabilities in the core of the star. In these
thermal pulses, the luminosity of the star varies and matter is ejected from the star's atmosphere,
ultimately forming a planetary nebula. As much as 50 to 70% of a star's mass can be ejected in
this mass loss process. Because energy transport in an AGB star is primarily by convection, this
ejected material is enriched with the fusion products dredged up from the core. Therefore, the
planetary nebula is enriched with elements like carbon and oxygen. Ultimately, the planetary nebula
disperses, enriching the general interstellar medium.[89] Therefore, future generations of stars are
made of the "star stuff" from past stars.[90]
Massive stars
Main articles: Supergiant star, Hypergiant, and Wolf–Rayet star

Onion-like layers at the core of a massive, evolved star just before

During their helium-burning phase, a star of more than 9 solar masses expands to form first a blue
supergiant and then a red supergiant. Particularly massive stars (exceeding 40 solar masses,
like Alnilam, the central blue supergiant of Orion's Belt)[91] do not become red supergiants due to high
mass loss.[92] These may instead evolve to a Wolf–Rayet star, characterised by spectra dominated by
emission lines of elements heavier than hydrogen, which have reached the surface due to strong
convection and intense mass loss, or from stripping of the outer layers.[93]
When helium is exhausted at the core of a massive star, the core contracts and the temperature and
pressure rises enough to fuse carbon (see Carbon-burning process). This process continues, with
the successive stages being fueled by neon (see neon-burning process), oxygen (see oxygen-
burning process), and silicon (see silicon-burning process). Near the end of the star's life, fusion
continues along a series of onion-layer shells within a massive star. Each shell fuses a different
element, with the outermost shell fusing hydrogen; the next shell fusing helium, and so forth. [94]
The final stage occurs when a massive star begins producing iron. Since iron nuclei are more tightly
bound than any heavier nuclei, any fusion beyond iron does not produce a net release of energy. [95]
Collapse
As a star's core shrinks, the intensity of radiation from that surface increases, creating such radiation
pressure on the outer shell of gas that it will push those layers away, forming a planetary nebula. If
what remains after the outer atmosphere has been shed is less than roughly 1.4 M☉, it shrinks to a
relatively tiny object about the size of Earth, known as a white dwarf. White dwarfs lack the mass for
further gravitational compression to take place.[96] The electron-degenerate matter inside a white
dwarf is no longer a plasma. Eventually, white dwarfs fade into black dwarfs over a very long period
of time.[97]
 The Crab Nebula, remnants of a supernova that was first observed
around 1050 AD

In massive stars, fusion continues until the iron core has grown so large (more than 1.4 M☉) that it
can no longer support its own mass. This core will suddenly collapse as its electrons are driven into
its protons, forming neutrons, neutrinos, and gamma rays in a burst of electron capture and inverse
beta decay. The shockwave formed by this sudden collapse causes the rest of the star to explode in
a supernova. Supernovae become so bright that they may briefly outshine the star's entire home
galaxy. When they occur within the Milky Way, supernovae have historically been observed by
naked-eye observers as "new stars" where none seemingly existed before.[98]
A supernova explosion blows away the star's outer layers, leaving a remnant such as the Crab
Nebula.[98] The core is compressed into a neutron star, which sometimes manifests itself as
a pulsar or X-ray burster. In the case of the largest stars, the remnant is a black hole greater than
4 M☉.[99] In a neutron star the matter is in a state known as neutron-degenerate matter, with a more
exotic form of degenerate matter, QCD matter, possibly present in the core.[100]
The blown-off outer layers of dying stars include heavy elements, which may be recycled during the
formation of new stars. These heavy elements allow the formation of rocky planets. The outflow from
supernovae and the stellar wind of large stars play an important part in shaping the interstellar
medium.[98]
Binary stars
Binary stars' evolution may significantly differ from that of single stars of the same mass. For
example, when any star expands to become a red giant, it may overflow its Roche lobe, the
surrounding region where material is gravitationally bound to it; if stars in a binary system are close
enough, some of that material may overflow to the other star, yielding phenomena including contact
binaries, common-envelope binaries, cataclysmic variables, blue stragglers,[101] and type Ia
supernovae. Mass transfer leads to cases such as the Algol paradox, where the most-evolved star in
a system is the least massive.[102]