The presence of which element would indicate that a star is going through a high-mass star life cycle as opposed to a low-mass star life cycle?

A high-mass star can fuse progressively heavier elements in its core, eventually producing iron near the end of its life. Low-mass stars do not reach the conditions needed to fuse elements all the way to iron. So the presence of iron indicates a high-mass star life cycle.

AI-written and checked against the verified answer.