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

Far lighter than other ions collided at the LHC, oxygen (and neon) could tell us about conditions in the early universe.

The precursors of heavy elements might arise in the plasma underbellies of swollen stars or in smoldering stellar corpses.

Richard Feynman, a famous theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Prize, said that if he could pass on only one piece of ...

A proton’s mass number represents how many protons and neutrons atoms of this type have. The mass number of Carbon-12 is 12; it has six protons and six neutrons. The mass number of Carbon-14 is 14; it ...

The number of protons is what defines the element. Oxygen, for example, has eight protons. However, the number of neutrons in an atom can vary, leading to different forms of elements, called isotopes.

The word magic is not often used in the context of science. But in the early 1930s, scientists discovered that some atomic nuclei — the center part of atoms, which make up all matter — were more ...

With eight protons and eight neutrons, oxygen-16 has an extremely stable nucleus. A nearby star produced the oxygen we find on Earth through nuclear reactions in its core sometime before the solar ...

Oxygen-28, with its 8 protons and 20 neutrons, belongs to this super-category and should, in theory, have enhanced stability. But another equally unforgiving rule of nuclear physics works in the ...