Stellar nucleosynthesis is the research area concerned with the nuclear processes by which chemical elements are formed and transformed within stars and related astrophysical environments. It encompasses hydrogen burning (pp-chains, CNO cycles), helium burning, advanced hydrostatic burning stages (carbon, neon, oxygen, silicon burning), and explosive nucleosynthesis in supernovae and neutron-star-related events. The field integrates nuclear reaction theory and measurements, stellar structure and evolution modeling, and observational constraints from stellar spectra and isotopic abundances. A central focus is quantifying reaction rates and yields to explain the origin and distribution of isotopes in the cosmos and to constrain models of stellar evolution and galactic chemical evolution.
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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Our sun, like all stars, is made mostly of hydrogen and helium. They are by far the most abundant elements, formed in the early moments of the universe. But our star is also rich in other elements astronomers call metals: ...
Astronomy
Apr 17, 2025
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Researchers from Kyushu University, Japan have revealed how a special type of force within an atom's nucleus, known as the three-nucleon force, impacts nuclear stability. The study, published in Physics Letters B, provides ...
General Physics
Jan 28, 2025
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Water is the essence of life. Every living thing on Earth contains water within it. The Earth is rich with life because it is rich with water. This fundamental connection between water and life is partly due to water's extraordinary ...
Astronomy
Jan 15, 2025
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Life on Earth could not exist without carbon. But carbon itself could not exist without stars. Nearly all elements except hydrogen and helium—including carbon, oxygen and iron—only exist because they were forged in stellar ...
Astronomy
Jan 3, 2025
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Most of the diverse elements in the universe come from supernovae. We are, quite literally, made of the dust of those long-dead stars and other astrophysical processes. But the details of how it all comes about are something ...
Astronomy
Nov 2, 2024
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What is the heaviest element in the universe? Are there infinitely many elements? Where and how could superheavy elements be created naturally?
A study published in The Astrophysical Journal presents new simulation results of supernova explosions that explain the latest observational data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Astronomy
Oct 23, 2024
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A newly discovered star could challenge some models of how stars evolve and the way they produce elements as they age.
Astronomy
Oct 17, 2024
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When a massive star explodes as a supernova, it does more than release an extraordinary amount of energy. Supernovae explosions are responsible for creating some of the heavy elements, including iron, which is blasted out ...
Astronomy
Sep 25, 2024
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