<ul><li>Hydrogen and helium were the only elements in the early Universe before the formation of heavier elements like carbon, silica, and iron through stellar nucleosynthesis.</li><li>A team of researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory explored the origin of the heaviest elements on the periodic table, proposing a scenario involving collapse of stars and the production of free neutrons to form heavy elements like thorium and uranium.</li><li>Their findings suggest that gamma-ray bursts from collapsed stars could create conditions for heavy element formation through neutron-capture processes, contributing to the understanding of the origins of elements like plutonium and uranium.</li><li>Further research and simulations are planned to validate this proposed framework, which could also explain phenomena like kilonova and address key questions in physics and cosmology.</li></ul>

New research traces heavy elements to collapsing stars

Discover more