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

An atom consists of a heavy center, called the nucleus, made of particles called protons and neutrons. An atom has lighter ...

But the way it gets there is complicated. You can never have more than two objects collide-and-react at once; you can't simply put four hydrogen nuclei together and turn them into a helium-4 nucleus.

Hydrogen molecule nuclei image is obtained. HEIDELBERG, Germany, Nov. 9 (UPI) -- German researchers have, for the first time, visualized vibration and rotation in the nuclei of a hydrogen ...

Even when they are in their lowest possible electronic energy level (i.e., the electron's ground state), these two nuclei can still rotate and vibrate, producing a wide range of rovibrational states.

Because an atomic nucleus of helium is 0.7% lighter than the four hydrogen nuclei that it's created from, that act of nuclear fusion releases a tremendously efficient amount of energy.

The first elements — hydrogen and helium — couldn’t form until the universe had cooled enough to allow their nuclei to capture electrons (right), about 380,000 years after the Big Bang ...

On Earth, elements exist in one of three states: solid, liquid, or gas. The form an element takes depends on its pressure and temperature. While hydrogen is typically a gas on Earth, it can be ...