Isotopes in the cosmos
I mentioned the basics of isotopes and why they are useful in our lives in a previous post. Here I wanted to talk about why isotopes matter in the Universe. We usually ask questions like “How are the elements created in stars?” or “What is the origin of heavy elements in the Universe?” or “How do stars make gold?". These are all great questions, but in reality things are a bit more complicated than they appear. The complication is that each of the elements can have many stabl
Why is there so much Iron in the Universe?
I get asked this question a lot: Why is there so much iron in the Universe? If you look at the big picture, our Universe, our Solar system, and even our own planet, are most abundant in hydrogen and helium, the two lightest elements. Then, it’s all-downhill from there: elements get less and less abundant the heavier they are. This is the general rule, but like every rule, there are exceptions. There are ups and downs, peaks and valleys, in the distribution of elements. Some o