Making medium-weight elements now.Making medium-weight elements now The universe has 92 naturally occurring chemical elements. Astrophysicists An astrophysicist is a person who professionally studies and conducts research in astrophysics. Famous astrophysicists
 tēr`ēəm), isotope of hydrogen with mass no. 2. The deuterium nucleus, called a deuteron, contains one proton and one neutron. . Ordinary processes in the more common kinds of stars make the lighter elements, up to about carbon and oxygen. Heavier ones must come from unusual events, such as stellar explosions, or more exotic kinds of stars or stellar objects, but no one is quite sure of the details. In gamma-ray spectra taken by the HEAO HEAO High Energy Astronomy ObservatoryHEAO High Energy Astrophysics Observatory HEAO High Energy Astronomical Observatory HEAO Hoger Economisch En Administratief Onderwijs 3 satellite Alan S. Jacobson of Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory “JPL” redirects here. For other uses, see JPL (disambiguation). Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a NASA research center located in the cities of Pasadena and La Cañada Flintridge, near Los Angeles, California, USA. in Pasadena now finds the first direct evidence that synthesis of medium-weight elements is now going on in interstellar space interstellar space See under space. Noun 1. interstellar space - the space between stars outer space, space - any location outside the Earth's atmosphere; "the astronauts walked in outer space without a tether"; "the first . The gamma-ray spectrometer on HEAO 3 found radiation with an energy of 1,808 kilo-electron-volts coming from the direction of the center of our galaxy. This energy is characteristic of radioactive aluminum-26, an isotope with a lifetime of about a million years. The shortness of the lifetime combined with the strength of the radiation indicates that the aluminum is being formed now. Observations with the Solar Maximum Mission This article is about the space satellite. For other uses, see SMM (disambiguation) The Solar Maximum Mission satellite (or SolarMax) was designed to investigate solar phenomenon, particularly solar flares. It was launched on February 14, 1980. satellite have lately confirmed the HEAO 3 finding, Jacobson says. Probably the most popular theory of the formation of medium-weight elements like aluminum proposes that they are made in shock waves that arise during the explosion of a star into a supernova. However, Jacobson says, the amount of aluminum seen is about three times what would be expected if supernovas were the sole source. Other possible sources, he says, are novas (another kind of stellar explosion), red giant stars, Wolf-Rayet stars or stars of spectral class O. According to Jacobson, novas are most likely. |
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