How a planet comes together has implications for whether it captures and retains the volatile elements, including nitrogen, carbon and water, that eventually give rise to life, according to scientists ...

Most of the carbon and nitrogen in our bodies probably came from a planet the size of Mars crashing into Earth 4.4 billion years ago, scientists say. Researchers have long thought that these elements, ...

Elements heavier than iron, such as gold and uranium, are primarily formed through neutron capture processes, specifically the rapid neutron capture process (r-process). The r-process, unlike the ...

Astrophysicists are one step closer to understanding how the heaviest chemical elements are created in the universe, thanks to a camera designed and built at the University of Sheffield. Scientists ...

One of the great ongoing challenges of astrophysics, to find out how stars evolve and die, is to be tackled in an ambitious European research programme. This will involve studying in the laboratory ...

Around 3.5 billion years ago, life began to sprout on a fairly quiet, desolate planet we call Earth. Tracing the origins of life, and how molecules combined to create microbial life, is perhaps the ...

An international team of scientists using one of the pair of 10-meter telescopes at the W.M. Keck Observatory on the summit of Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii has shown that the early moments of our ...

A surprising new study reveals that the first stars appeared in a pre-heated universe, challenging earlier ideas about early cosmic conditions.

It’s common for researchers to conduct a mineral analysis on a suspected meteorite, dissecting and identifying its compounds to determine what it is and where it came from. The process is usually done ...

Planets may not be able to form without a heaping helping of heavy elements such as silicon, titanium and magnesium, a new study suggests. Stars that host planets have higher concentrations of such ...

RECENT work on the chemistry of the heavy elements formed one main topic of a symposium, organised by the Chemistry Division of the Atomic Energy Research Establishment Harwell, on behalf of the ...