Nuclear fission and fusion explained the results of Hahn and Strassman's 1939 experiment bombarding uranium-235 with neutrons. Meitner and Frisch determined the uranium had split into smaller elements through nuclear fission. Nuclear fission is the splitting of heavier nuclei into lighter nuclei and releases energy according to Einstein's mass-energy equivalence formula E=mc2. Nuclear chain reactions can occur when the number of neutrons released through fission triggers further fissions. Nuclear fusion is when two light nuclei combine and fuse, but requires overcoming the electrostatic repulsion between protons which requires extremely high temperatures provided by stars.