A nuclear fusion process in massive stars where carbon-12 nuclei fuse together to create heavier elements like neon, sodium, and magnesium. This occurs at temperatures around 600 million Kelvin in the cores of stars with masses greater than 8 solar masses.
From Latin 'carbo' meaning charcoal (referring to the element carbon) and 'burning' indicating nuclear fusion. The process was theoretically described in the 1960s as part of advanced stellar nucleosynthesis theory.
Carbon burning is like a cosmic alchemy lab where stars transform the carbon created in earlier fusion stages into a whole periodic table of new elements! This process lasts only about 600 years in a massive star - a cosmic blink of an eye compared to billions of years of hydrogen burning.
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