The formation of small worlds like Earth previously was thought to occur mostly around stars rich in heavy elements such as iron and silicon. However, new ground-based observations, combined with data ...

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 ...

As massive stars collapse into black holes, powerful jets tearing out from their hearts may "dissolve" the stars' outer layers, providing the ingredients to make heavy elements. This is the conclusion ...

How heavy can an element be? An international team of researchers has found that ancient stars were capable of producing elements with atomic masses greater than 260, heavier than any element on the ...

Research by scientists in South Africa and India is shedding light on the nuclear processes that lead to the formation of heavy elements after the collision of neutron stars, and why those elements ...

Webb observations of the Sextans A galaxy reveal how stars in a metal-poor areas create cosmic dust, offering clues about the ...

For years, astronomers puzzled over the mystery of where the heaviest elements in the universe—like gold, uranium, and platinum—come from. Scientists understood that these elements had to form under ...

An international team of astronomers reports the discovery of a star, HE1327-2326, which sets a new record for being the most heavy element-deficient star ever found. Its chemical composition, as ...