A massive star erupts in a supernova explosion that will disperse the elemental building blocks of life into the cosmos.
(Image credit: Robert Lea (Created with Canva))
Scientists are closer than ever before to understanding how stars forge the elements that comprise our planet, bodies and pretty much everything else around us — and they're gaining a clearer picture of where star explosions fit into the story.New research reported in two different papers looks at how stars forge elements as they explode and how these supernova explosions spread those elements — and other elements stars have forged during their lifetimes — throughout the cosmos.Astronomers have been studying the bright supernova deaths of massive stars for centuries, but they still don't quite understand how these explosions proceed.The first paper looked at one way to investigate supernovas. It uses a radioactive element produced by these explosions called titanium-44, which lingers long after supernovas fade. Researchers have now collected experimental evidence that determines how much titanium-44 is created in a supernova, finding that these cosmic explosions produce 35% more of this element than expected.With this knowledge in hand, scientists can now develop robust computer models of supernovas and compare these models with astronomical observations. This could bring them much closer to understanding how these explosions progress."It's exciting to see just how far the field has come," Christopher Cousins, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Surrey's Nuclear Physics Group, said in a statement. "A measurement like this would have been considered out of reach only a couple of decades ago, but it now gives us new insight into one of the biggest unanswered questions in astrophysics."
