Iron in the Fire: The Little-Star Supernovae That Could
5 Jun 2012, 13:00 UTC
NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); acknowledgment: J. Hughes (Rutgers U.)
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Although stars other than our sun are light-years away, their gifts are all around us: the oxygen we breathe, the calcium in our bones, the iron in our blood. High-mass stars have been especially generous. During their short lives, they cook up such elements as oxygen and magnesium and eject them into space via supernova explosions; the blasts themselves forge still heavier elements, such as gold and platinum. About 80 percent of the Milky Way's supernovae arise from large stars, so their by-products are everywhere--from the magnesium in chocolate to the gold at Fort Knox. [More]
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