[wesammikhail]

This actually brings me to a physics question I've had for a while and if it is unrelated, please feel free to ignore it as I might be mixing concepts.

Both fusion and fission release energy when they occur. Which seems somewhat weird to me. Is it the cases that the reason a stable atom has less energy than the sum of its parts (as you pointed out) is because it gave off some energy during the fusion process?

[xmgplays]

Pretty much. To simplify a bit: the most stable atom is iron-56 anything lighter can be fused and anything heavier can be split to release energy. Essentially after iron the forces that bind atoms together start to lose out to the repulsion between it's constituents, which makes heavier atoms more and more unstable. This is also why stars that start to fuse iron together will start to cool down.

[wesammikhail]

I see. This explains why the distribution of heavy elements in the universe looks like the way it does. Thanks for the reply!