Elements Produced by Stars

One of the amazing things about astronomy is that humans have managed to figure out where the elements come from, and that most of the atoms in our bodies were once deep inside stars. This charting tool allows you to explore how much of each element is produced by stars of various mass. There is a lot to explore here; instructors should ask their students how the yields relate to their understanding of the principal nuclear reactions involved as a function of mass and time.

Instructors should further connect this to the measured abundances of the elements, which is a cumulative effect of all types of stars. Which types of stars do the most processing? That's easy to answer for individual stars, but what else do we need to know to determine this collectively? Considered collectively, which stars contribute most to any given element?

Click on the image to start; it will take you to the creators' site.



The students used yields posted here by Dr. Chiaki Kobayashi. If you are an astronomer and are intrigued after using this tool, check out this review article co-authored by Dr. Kobayashi.