We Are Stardust
CREDIT: INFRARED: B.-C. KOO ET AL., X-RAY: J.-J. LEE
Most of the universe's chemical elements were produced in stars, with the heaviest elements being produced when stars explode. Barlow et al. (p. 1343) used the Herschel Space Observatory to obtain submillimeter spectra of the Crab Nebula, the remains of a stellar explosion that was witnessed on Earth in 1054 AD, and detected the first evidence of a noble gas-containing molecular ion in space—36ArH+. Koo et al. (p. 1346) obtained near-infrared spectroscopic observations of the remains of another stellar explosion, Cassiopeia A, with the Palomar 5-m Hale telescope, and found evidence that a substantial amount of phosphorus was formed in the explosion. Among the six elements essential for life (hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and sulfur), only the origin of phosphorus remained to be confirmed by observation.
Science
13 December 2013:
Vol. 342 no. 6164
p. 1289
DOI:
10.1126/science.342.6164.1289-a