Where did we come from? How were all our atoms created? These are some fascinating questions that a group of astronomers called the R-Process Alliance is trying to answer. Today they publish a groundbreaking new study in the prestigious scientific journal Science, showing the signature of cosmic creation of very heavy elements. Therese Hansen, a researcher in the Department of Astronomy, is one of the authors of the article.
The overall mission of the R-Process Alliance is to decipher the elusive origins of heavy materials – an origin that is poorly understood today. Unlike their lighter counterparts, heavy elements like silver and gold are not created inside stars like our sun. Instead, they arise from an atomic process called fast neutron capture, which can best be visualized as a complex dance of fast particles that only occurs in the wake of rare and extreme astronomical events such as supernovas or collisions of compact celestial bodies.
Rapid neutron capture is a fascinating cosmic phenomenon responsible for creating the heaviest elements in our universe.
Dr. explains. Therese Hansen, an astronomer and co-author of the article at Stockholm University. “However, where the r process occurs that leads to the formation of heavy materials has been a mystery to us, at least until now.” Dr. Hansen is a founding member of the R-Process Coalition.
The R-Process consortium has revealed a groundbreaking discovery in its latest project, decoding the composition of superheavy elements. When these elements are formed in the r process to achieve a very heavy state, they become unstable and eventually break down into elements such as silver and palladium. This cascade of matter decay has left a distinctive imprint in the stars’ atmospheres, a kind of silvery fingerprint that the R-Process Alliance believes is the remnants of superheavy elements disintegrating.
“In our quest to understand the r process, we have identified a clear accumulation of silver and palladium in the atmospheres of stars,” notes Dr. Hansen. “These elements are the product of extremely heavy matter that has undergone fragmentation and provide a concrete view of the processes that occur in extreme cosmic environments where nebulae are formed and new stars are born.”
What makes this discovery particularly important is that it provides a glimpse into the production of elements heavier than any man-made counterparts. While these heavy elements remain elusive to direct observation, indirect evidence found in stellar atmospheres is a testament to what may have happened in the environment that eventually led to the birth of new stars.
“The implications of these findings extend far beyond the world of astrophysics. By precisely mapping the chemical compositions of stars, the R-Process consortium not only reveals ‘where’ and ‘when’ fast neutron capture events occur, but also provides Important insights into the abundance of heavy elements, such as silver, resulting from these cosmic explosions. In short: they give us a unique understanding of the composition of elements in the universe.
The study is based on observations of 42 stars in the Milky Way. The group examined 31 elements that had been observed in 34 previous studies.
The R-process consortium found that through the fission of ultraheavy elements that form in extreme cosmic events, they can explain the abundance of silver and palladium we observe in stars today. Illustration: Magne Christensen, astronomicca.com
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Majken Christensen contributed text and provided images: https://astronomicca.com/
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Last updated: December 7, 2023
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