Primordial nucleosynthesis during the early universe generated hydrogen, helium, and minor lithium-7 before the cosmos cooled, halting further fusion. Stellar interiors synthesize elements up to iron ...

Heavy duty: artist’s impression of a kilonova releasing r-process elements into the cosmos. (Courtesy: ESO/L Calçada/M Kornmesser) The mystery of where heavy elements such as gold and silver come from ...

For the first time, astronomers have definitively ID’d a specific heavy element forged by a neutron star merger. Theories of physics have long predicted that about half of the universe’s heavy ...

In an ejection that would have caused its rotation to slow, a magnetar is depicted losing material into space in this artist’s concept. The magnetar’s strong, twisted magnetic field lines (shown in ...

A: The lightest elements in the universe — hydrogen, helium, and a little lithium — were born shortly after the Big Bang. The heavier elements, up to iron, were forged later, in the hearts of stars ...