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 ...

Besides being a point of light, a star is a luminous, spherical mass of plasma, enough to hold itself together under its own gravity. On its own, though, gravitational rounding isn't enough. What ...

For decades, astronomers have wondered what the very first stars in the universe were like. These stars formed new chemical elements, which enriched the universe and allowed the next generations of ...

Researchers at the Argonne National Laboratory studied a nuclear reaction and measured conditions that can explain how heavy elements are formed inside stars. Stars are mainly composed of light ...

New observations of a nearby red giant star suggest that a long-standing explanation for how giant stars spread life’s ...

Not all stars are created equally. Astronomers believe that the first stars to form after the Big Bang were mostly made of only hydrogen and helium with trace amounts of lithium, as the heavier ...

The precursors of heavy elements might arise in the plasma underbellies of swollen stars or in smoldering stellar corpses. They definitely exist in East Lansing, Michigan. The Facility for Rare ...

"Even today, our understanding of star formation is still developing; comprehending how stars formed in the earlier universe is even more challenging." When you purchase through links on our site, we ...

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 ...

Chemistry in the first 50 million to 100 million years after the Big Bang may have been more active than we expected. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Luke Keller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their ...