1st evidence of nuclear fission in stars hints at elements 'never produced on Earth'

Sharmila Kuthunur ^ | December 14, 2023 | Live Science

[SunkenCiv]

Elements heavier than iron are thought to be born in some of the most violent explosions in the cosmos, like the cataclysmic mergers of neutron stars. The coalescence of these ultradense remnants -- which are forged when once-massive stars collapse -- creates superheavy atomic nuclei packed with neutrons in less than a second. In a flash, the jam-packed nucleus seems to go through internal changes and forms elements such as silver and gold.

Now, an analysis of the chemical makeup of 42 very old stars scattered in the halo of the Milky Way reveals for the first time that nuclear fission -- a process through which an atom splits apart, releasing massive amounts of energy -- plays a role in creating these heavy elements. A team of researchers discovered a consistent pattern among elements in these stars and found them to be the likely products of fission.

"This process is creating everything on the periodic table in one second," study co-author Matthew Mumpower, a theoretical physicist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, told Live Science. "That's pretty incredible."

The finding suggests that nature may forge elements with atomic masses greater than 260 -- heavier than even those at the edge of the periodic table -- before breaking them down again. While simulations of stellar evolution have suggested that this heavy-duty fission is likely to happen, the new research marks the first "direct evidence" of the process, lead study author Ian Roederer, a physicist and astronomer at North Carolina State University told Live Science.

[stremba]

No, transmutation of elements is possible, but it is far cheaper to just mine what we need. We are talking about energies greater than what is present in the core of the sun to do fusion reactions other than hydrogen-to-helium fusion. Fission can produce new elements as well, but the raw materials for fission are typically more costly than the new elements produced. For example, fission of uranium typically produces elements like calcium that are cheaper than the uranium you started with.

[stremba]

Good synopsis hit one minor quibble — according to the standard cosmological models in place currently, some of the elements in the universe heavier than hydrogen were formed when the universe cooled sufficiently for nuclei to be stable, long before stars formed. Most of the matter in the universe was indeed hydrogen (as is still the case today), but a significant fraction of matter formed into helium nuclei with a very tiny trace of lithium.

Pretty much everything heavier than lithium and up to iron, plus of course lots of additional helium, did indeed form as the result of fusion in stars. Heavier elements than iron formed in supernovae via neutron capture.

[SunkenCiv]

It’s the only way elements heavier than hydrogen get made.

[Carry_Okie]

Thank you both for taking the time to distill this. It leads me to ponder the relationships between specific elements and biological processes insofar as to how these elements are distributed and in what fractions of total mass they develop. For example, iron is the center molecule of hemoglobin, which stands to reason because there is lots of iron in the planet. That works for animals. On the other hand, the entire nitrogen cycle in plants is dependent upon diazotrophic bacteria producing leghemoglobin, which is virtually identical to our flavor with the exception of molybdenum as a center atom despite that they are not in the same column in the periodic table. Mo is relatively rare in soils, typically between 1-5ppm, yet it is relatively evenly distributed in the "biosphere" because of volcanic dispersion. It fascinates me that so much of life is dependent upon an element that is so uncommon.

So here we are on this blob in space, hanging on by a biochemical thread totally dependent upon these seemingly odd mineral relationships with little concept for how that fantastically complicated life system beneath our feet actually operates. Yet so much of our research money is devoted to beginnings of how things came to be, which are relatively unproductive curiosities by comparison (Oganesson indeed). It strikes me that such emphases are driven by a systemic educational antipathy for "Creation," this despite the fact that the Hebrew for that term implies something very different from an ex nihilo process (if this interests you, be sure to read the Genesius lexicon entry). It would seem that there is too much taught ology, both in secular and religious scholarship. So it goes.

Thanks again, and FReegards!

[Verginius Rufus]

Who is to blame for this? Elon Musk or Donald Trump?

[Telepathic Intruder]

That’s correct. About 25% of all matter in the universe is in the form of helium, which was created in the early universe when it was hot and dense enough for that to occur (cosmic nucleosynthesis). Also trace amounts of lithium, deuterium, and helium-3. The amount of helium is good evidence for the Big Bang theory, since mathematical models also predict this.

[oldbill]

Glad I’m out of school.
I had a hard enough time with the current periodic table. Imagine one twice as big.

[SunkenCiv]

As I recall, it all got harder to remember if that period was in the afternoon. :^)

[SunkenCiv]

:^)

[PIF]

You can likely find such detailed information from any astronomer/astrophysicist - it does exist.

[Nateman]

When Neutron stars merge, chuncks are splattered into space. They probably bust up like popcorn into stable isotopes. The recent detection of such a merger using gravity waves likely produced 3 Earth masses of Gold.

[oldbill]

Where?

[Nateman]

galaxy NGC 4993, about 144 million light years away

[oldbill]

Can I put a claim on it? Is it more than 40 acres?