Sir Fred Hoyle: Discovering Elements in Supernovae

[Plastic Photon]

Will on spring break earlier this year my dad informed me of a physicist who had recently passed away and who was responsible for detecting that all elements up to carbon(?) are formed in supernova. I have had a hard time searching for information on this man and his work and was wondering if any of you could help.

 

[mathman]

I don't know the answer to your question, but the element formation story you have seems garbled. At the big bang, elements up to Li were formed. Within stars fusion processes lead to formation of elements up to Fe. Supernova explosions result in forming all heavier elements, also those which may have been skipped in getting to Fe by fusion.

 

[Labguy]

http://aether.lbl.gov/www/tour/elements/stellar/stellar_a.html" is a decent coverage of formation of the elements.

 

[Garth]

Will on spring break earlier this year my dad informed me of a physicist who had recently passed away and who was responsible for detecting that all elements up to carbon(?) are formed in supernova. I have had a hard time searching for information on this man and his work and was wondering if any of you could help.

I think you may be thinking of Sir Fred Hoyle 1915-2001.

Garth