Nuclear Astrophysics @ Tamu-C
The elements that make up everything that we see around us were made by nuclear reactions and decays. These processes also produce the energy that makes the stars shine, including the nearest star, our sun. We depend on this energy for our very existence.
The abundances of the elements and isotopes provide important information about the astrophysical environments where they were created. Nuclear astrophysics studies the first epoch of nucleosynthesis during the big bang, the major burning stages in the life of a star, the structure and content of stars, the evolution of stellar populations, and the evolution of the Galaxy as a whole.
