R-process nucleosynthesis. Credit: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Ancient stars could have made elements with more than 260 protons
Did you know that the first stars of the universe were monstrous beasts? Comprised only of hydrogen and helium, they could be 300 times more massive than the sun. Within them, the creation of the first of the heavier elements occurred. A new study published in Science suggests these ancient progenitors created more than just the natural elements!
For example, did you know that except for hydrogen, helium, and a few traces of other light elements, all of the atoms we see around us were created through astrophysical processes? Excitingly, a new study published by scientists implies the possibility that the r-process in the very first stars could have produced much heavier elements with atomic masses greater than 260.
Find out more about this groundbreaking study by reading the full article Read More
More information:
Ian U. Roederer et al, Element abundance patterns in stars indicate fission of nuclei heavier than uranium, Science (2023). DOI: 10.1126/science.adf1341. On arXiv: DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2312.06844
Citation: Ancient stars could make elements with more than 260 protons (2023, December 23)
retrieved 23 December 2023
from https://phys.org/news/2023-12-ancient-stars-elements-protons.html
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