Reticulum II tagged posts

Cosmic Heavy Metals help Scientists Trace the History of Galaxies

What is the origin of gold, silver, platinum? Credit: © alexphoto71 / Fotolia

What is the origin of gold, silver, platinum? Credit: © alexphoto71 / Fotolia

The origin of many of the most precious elements on the periodic table, such as gold, silver and platinum, has perplexed scientists for >6 decades. Now a recent study has an answer, evocatively conveyed in the faint starlight from a distant dwarf galaxy. In a roundtable discussion The Kavli Foundation spoke to 2 of the researchers behind the discovery about why the source of these heavy elements, collectively called “r-process” elements, has been so hard to crack.

“Understanding how heavy, r-process elements are formed is one of hardest problems in nuclear physics,” said Assistant/Prof Anna Frebel, MIT...

Read More

Tiny, Ancient Galaxy Preserves Record of Catastrophic Event

This is an image of Reticulum II obtained by the Dark Energy Survey, using the Blanco 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. The nine stars described in the paper are circled in red. The insets show the very strong presence of barium, one of the main neutron capture elements the team observed, in three stars. Background image is courtesy of Dark Energy Survey/Fermilab. Foreground image is courtesy of Alexander Ji, Anna Frebel, Anirudh Chiti, and Josh Simon. Credit: Background image is courtesy of Dark Energy Survey/Fermilab. Foreground image is courtesy of Alexander Ji, Anna Frebel, Anirudh Chiti, and Josh Simon.

This is an image of Reticulum II obtained by the Dark Energy Survey, using the Blanco 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. The nine stars described in the paper are circled in red. The insets show the very strong presence of barium, one of the main neutron capture elements the team observed, in three stars. Background image is courtesy of Dark Energy Survey/Fermilab. Foreground image is courtesy of Alexander Ji, Anna Frebel, Anirudh Chiti, and Josh Simon. Credit: Background image is courtesy of Dark Energy Survey/Fermilab. Foreground image is courtesy of Alexander Ji, Anna Frebel, Anirudh Chiti, and Josh Simon.

The lightest few elements in the periodic table formed minutes after the Big Bang...

Read More