“Iron helps us play!” -The Simpsons
If you were to peel back the layers of a supermassive star, before it went supernova, what you'd find were a slew of layers abundant in the even-numbers elements up to iron, but little else. Well, this weekend, have I got a fun little find for you! First off, enjoy the sounds of Jeff Austin (and Chris Castino) as they perform the best rendition of
I've ever heard. And then, when you're ready, prepare for a fun and addicting stellar-nucleosynthesis based game: Fe[26].
Image credit: screenshot from http://newbrict.github.io/Fe26/.
Go read the whole story -- and see how it compares to real nucleosynthesis -- here! (And if we have any RPI readers here, this came from your University!)
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This is brilliant, although I'm developing an irrational hatred of Magnesium...
Hi Ethan,
Good blog post.
I manage 4 Irons fairly regularly. Here is a snapshot with 5 (and a carbon and an oxygen to boot).
http://www.astro.caltech.edu/~aam/fun/Fe26/
Cheers,
ashish