Elements heavier than Fe; supernovae and particle accelerators

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icannotforget@gmail.com - 14 Sep 2007 00:18 GMT

I hope someone can answer this simple question for me, a layman:

If a star can only produce elements up to the periodic number of Fe,
and those heavier than Fe are produced in supernovae, how can WE
produce even HEAVIER elements in particle accelerators? It would seem
that the energy required must be equal to a supernova.

Thank you!

Jim

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Autymn D. C. - 02 Oct 2007 12:14 GMT

On Sep 13, 4:18 pm, icannotfor...@gmail.com wrote:

> I hope someone can answer this simple question for me, a layman:
>
> If a star can only produce elements up to the periodic number of Fe,
> and those heavier than Fe are produced in supernovae, how can WE
> produce even HEAVIER elements in particle accelerators? It would seem
> that the energy required must be equal to a supernova.

It's not hard if the atoms don't even add up to a kilogram, or gram,
or even a nanogram. Accelerators' beams regularly get hotter than a
supernova, at 10 GK. The binding energy between iron and uranium
atoms is 182*1.5 MeV, which is not very much--1.5 MeV is 11.6 GK at
the most.

-Aut

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Natural Science Forum / Physics / Particle Physics / October 2007

Elements heavier than Fe; supernovae and particle accelerators