Exploring an 'island of inversion,' physicists find new clues to element synthesis in supernovae
Wednesday, February 2, 2011 - 22:30
in Physics & Chemistry
A new discovery, and the questions is raises, could help explain in greater detail how elements are synthesized in the explosion of stars. Although theory predicted a spherical arrangement in the nucleus of magnesium-32, experiments had only revealed a configuration shaped like an American football. Now, through experiments at CERN, physicists have confirmed the existence of a spherical magnesium-32 nucleus, formed at a much lower than predicted energy level.