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Immediately after the Big Bang, before the first stars in the Universe ever formed, the Universe consisted of hydrogen (element #1), helium (element #2) and pretty much nothing else. Despite ...

Our Sun is the greatest source of heat and light in the entire Solar System, fusing hydrogen into helium in a nuclear chain reaction in its core. Because an atomic nucleus of helium is 0.7% lighter ...

New insight into the behaviour of atomic nuclei may explain how gigantic star explosions, or supernovas, have formed the elements that are crucial to humankind. Ground-breaking research in nuclear ...

Discovered in the 1800s in the solar spectrum, helium has been an element that has eluded humans for centuries. Despite being listed as one of the most abundant elements in the universe, this noble ...

In the divertor and near-wall region of magnetic confinement fusion plasma experiments processes involving neutral atoms, molecules and molecular ions are important. The primary plasma constituents ...

Hunting for (alpha,n) reactions: The experimental set-up in the ISAC-II hall at TRIUMF. (Courtesy: M Williams) New measurements by physicists from the University of Surrey in the UK have shed fresh ...

The methods previously described have been applied to a study of the elastic scattering of 4· 2 MeV protons by deuterium, helium, nitrogen, oxygen, neon, argon, chlorine and bromine. The results ...