Nuclear astrophysics is a research area at the interface of nuclear physics and astrophysics that investigates how nuclear processes govern the origin, evolution, and observable properties of cosmic objects and matter. It focuses on nuclear reaction rates, decay schemes, and equation-of-state properties under astrophysical conditions, and applies them to models of stellar structure, nucleosynthesis, supernovae, compact objects, and the early universe. The field integrates laboratory measurements, theoretical nuclear structure and reaction calculations, and astronomical observations to constrain reaction networks and to interpret elemental and isotopic abundances, energy generation, and neutrino and gravitational-wave signals in astrophysical environments.
Though atomic nuclei are often depicted as static clusters of protons and neutrons (nucleons), the particles are actually bustling with movement. Thus, the nucleons carry a range of momenta. Sometimes, these nucleons may ...
General Physics
Jul 31, 2025
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An international team of researchers, led by scientists from GSI/FAIR in Darmstadt, Germany, has studied r-process nucleosynthesis in measurements conducted at the Canadian research center TRIUMF in Vancouver. At the center ...
General Physics
Jul 2, 2025
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27
A research team led by Prof. Yong Gaochan from the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has proposed a novel experimental method to probe the hyperon potential, offering new insights into resolving ...
General Physics
Jun 6, 2025
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Understanding the origin of heavy elements on the periodic table is one of the most challenging open problems in all of physics. In the search for conditions suitable for these elements via "nucleosynthesis," a Los Alamos ...
Astronomy
Apr 25, 2025
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Physicists have measured a nuclear reaction that can occur in neutron star collisions, providing direct experimental data for a process that had previously only been theorized. The study, led by the University of Surrey, ...
General Physics
Mar 18, 2025
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Powering spacecraft with solar energy may not seem like a challenge, given how intense the sun's light can feel on Earth. Spacecraft near the Earth use large solar panels to harness the sun for the electricity needed to run ...
Space Exploration
Mar 17, 2025
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1
Neutron stars are some of the densest objects in the universe. They are the core of a collapsed megastar that went supernova, have a typical radius of 10 km—just slightly more than the altitude of Mt. Everest—and their ...
An international research collaboration led by the University of Surrey's Nuclear Physics Group has overturned the long-standing belief that the atomic nucleus of lead-208 (²⁰⁸Pb) is perfectly spherical. The discovery ...
General Physics
Feb 22, 2025
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257
Scientists at Goethe University Frankfurt have identified a new way to probe the interior of neutron stars using gravitational waves from their collisions. By analyzing the "long ringdown" phase—a pure-tone signal emitted ...
Astronomy
Feb 6, 2025
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82
The study of 'starquakes' (like earthquakes, but in stars) promises to give us important new insights into the properties of neutron stars (the collapsed remnants of massive stars), according to new research led by the University ...
General Physics
Feb 5, 2025
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