Where do atoms come from?

Where do atoms come from?

Where do all the atoms come from? When where they made and how? Is it true that we are all made of « stardust » that supernovae spit out when they die? In this video I will explain where all the chemical elements come from and that recent research points at neutron star mergers as the origin of the heavy ones, not supernovae. I will also tell you what the mythical « island of stability » is.

Note: The graph at 7 mins 44 seconds has the axes labels mixed up! The horizontal axis shows the number of neutrons, and the vertical one the number of protons, not the other way round. Sorry about that!!

Addendum to what I say at 4 mins 20 seconds: Some of the elements heavier than iron are created by also capturing protons.