An atom consists of a heavy center, called the nucleus, made of particles called protons and neutrons. An atom has lighter ...

The question of where atoms come from requires a lot of physics to be answered completely – and even then, physicists only have good guesses to explain how some atoms are formed.

The word magic is not often used in the context of science. But in the early 1930s, scientists discovered that some atomic ...

Many heavy atoms form from a supernova explosion, the remnants of which are shown in this image. NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage ...

Meanwhile, the helium-3 nucleus can then fuse with another helium-3 nucleus formed through the same process, creating helium-4 (2 protons, 2 neutrons) and emitting two other protons.

Normal helium, which is 700,000 times more common than helium-3, is called helium-4 because it has two protons and two neutrons. Whereas helium-4 is a common product of the decay of radioactive ...

When two deuterium nuclei are fused together, they form a helium nucleus (two protons and two neutrons) that weighs less than two deuterium nuclei. As in uranium fission the weight loss turns into ...

A research team has achieved a significant breakthrough in determining fundamental properties of atomic nuclei. The team conducted laser spectroscopy experiments on muonic helium-3. Muonic helium ...

That is, helium which differs from normal helium, or 4 He, so called because it contains two protons and two neutrons and is continuously produced by radioactive decay.

Before this time, the electrons had too much energy to settle into orbits around the hydrogen and helium nuclei. So, the hydrogen and helium atoms could form only once the universe cooled down to ...

Normal helium, which is 700,000 times more common than helium-3, is called helium-4 because it has two protons and two neutrons. Whereas helium-4 is a common product of the decay of radioactive ...