Equation 6 · Nucleosynthesis Is Descent With Modification
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Zoom out from individual nuclei to the gas that forms whole generations of stars, and the genealogy becomes explicit rather than metaphorical. Astronomers describe the abundance of everything heavier than helium in a star or a cloud of gas with a single number, metallicity, defined through the mass fractions of hydrogen ( X ), helium ( Y ) and “metals” ( Z ):
Sources cited in the article section
- [9] The Origin of Elements from Carbon to Uranium ↗
- [13] Modelling the Chemical Evolution of the Milky Way ↗
- [10] The Extremely Metal-Poor, Neutron Capture-Rich Star CS 22892-052: A Comprehensive Abundance Analysis ↗
- [11] The Chemical Composition of the Sun ↗
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