Element abundance patterns in stars indicate fission of nuclei heavier than uranium.

The heaviest chemical elements are naturally produced by the rapid neutron-capture process (r-process) during neutron star mergers or supernovae. The r-process production of elements heavier than uranium (transuranic nuclei) is poorly understood and inaccessible to experiments so must be extrapolated by using nucleosynthesis models. We examined element abundances in a sample of stars that are enhanced in r-process elements. The abundances of elements ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, and silver (atomic numbers Z = 44 to 47; mass numbers A = 99 to 110) correlate with those of heavier elements (63 ≤ Z ≤ 78, A > 150). There is no correlation for neighboring elements (34 ≤ Z ≤ 42 and 48 ≤ Z ≤ 62). We interpret this as evidence that fission fragments of transuranic nuclei contribute to the abundances. Our results indicate that neutron-rich nuclei with mass numbers >260 are produced in r-process events.

Two stellar components in the halo of the Milky Way.

The halo of the Milky Way provides unique elemental abundance and kinematic information on the first objects to form in the Universe, and this information can be used to tightly constrain models of galaxy formation and evolution. Although the halo was once considered a single component, evidence for its dichotomy has slowly emerged in recent years from inspection of small samples of halo objects. Here we show that the halo is indeed clearly divisible into two broadly overlapping structural components--an inner and an outer halo--that exhibit different spatial density profiles, stellar orbits and stellar metallicities (abundances of elements heavier than helium). The inner halo has a modest net prograde rotation, whereas the outer halo exhibits a net retrograde rotation and a peak metallicity one-third that of the inner halo. These properties indicate that the individual halo components probably formed in fundamentally different ways, through successive dissipational (inner) and dissipationless (outer) mergers and tidal disruption of proto-Galactic clumps.

Nucleosynthetic signatures of the first stars.

The chemically most primitive stars provide constraints on the nature of the first stellar objects that formed in the Universe; elements other than hydrogen, helium and traces of lithium present within these objects were generated by nucleosynthesis in the very first stars. The relative abundances of elements in the surviving primitive stars reflect the masses of the first stars, because the pathways of nucleosynthesis are quite sensitive to stellar masses. Several models have been suggested to explain the origin of the abundance pattern of the giant star HE0107-5240, which hitherto exhibited the highest deficiency of heavy elements known. Here we report the discovery of HE1327-2326, a subgiant or main-sequence star with an iron abundance about a factor of two lower than that of HE0107-5240. Both stars show extreme overabundances of carbon and nitrogen with respect to iron, suggesting a similar origin of the abundance patterns. The unexpectedly low Li and high Sr abundances of HE1327-2326, however, challenge existing theoretical understanding: no model predicts the high Sr abundance or provides a Li depletion mechanism consistent with data available for the most metal-poor stars.