Created in the first three minutes after the Big Bang, hydrogen and helium gave rise to all other elements in the universe. Stars made this possible. Through nuclear fusion, stars generated elements such as carbon, oxygen, magnesium and all the other raw materials necessary for making planets and ultimately life. But how did the first stars come to be? It all hinges on hydrogen atoms coming together to form hydrogen molecules. New research from Columbia University sheds light on this process.
"In order for us to follow the chain of events responsible for how we got here, we need to understand the beginning," says Daniel Wolf Savin, a senior research scientist in Columbia University's Astrophysics Laboratory. The work of Savin and his collaborators is published in, "Experimental Results for H2 Formation from H- and H and Implications for First Star Formation" in the July 2nd edition of the journal Science. The research is fully described in the attached June 30, 2010 webcast briefing Savin did for journalists on an embargoed basis.
