Related papers: Evolution and nucleosynthesis in low mass Asymptot…
Our Sun and planetary system were born about 4.5 billion years ago. How did this happen and what is our heritage from these early times? This review tries to address these questions from an astrochemical point of view. On the one hand, we…
The transformation of organic molecules into the simplest self-replicating living system,a microorganism, is accomplished from a unique event or rare events that occurred early in the Universe. The subsequent dispersal on cosmic scales and…
Heterogeneous supernova debris formed the solar system. Cores of inner planets formed in the central iron rich region. The Sun formed on the collapsed supernova core. Lighter elements and the lighter isotopes of each element are enriched at…
We study the asymptotic giant branch (AGB) evolution of stars with masses between $1~M_{\odot} - 8.5~M_{\odot}$. We focus on stars with a solar chemical composition, which allows us to interpret evolved stars in the Galaxy. We present a…
Ancient, long-lived stars remain present in all components of our home galaxy, the Milky Way. Born a few hundred million after the Big Bang and during a time that marked the very beginning of the chemical evolution, these stars display very…
Element synthesis which started with p-p chain has resulted in several specific characteristics including lack of any stable isotope having atomic masses 5 or 8. The carbon to oxygen ratio is fixed early by the chain of coincidences. These,…
Barium stars are one of the important probes to understand the origin and evolution of slow neutron-capture process elements in the Galaxy. These are extrinsic stars, where the observed s-process element abundances are believed to have an…
Carbon (C) is thought to be produced by both core collapse supernovae (CCSN) and asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars, but the relative contributions of these two sources are uncertain. We investigate the astrophysical origin of C using…
Energy in stars is provided by nuclear reactions, which, in many cases, produce radioactive nuclei. When stable nuclei are irradiated by a flux of protons or neutrons, capture reactions push stable matter out of stability into the regime of…
Light and intermediate nuclei as well as s-process elements have been detected in presolar grains and in evolved red giants. The abundances of some of these nuclei cannot be accounted for by canonical stellar models and require…
The ejecta of the first probably very massive stars polluted the Big Bang primordial element mix with the first heavier elements. The resulting ultra metal-poor abundance distribution provided the initial conditions for the second stars of…
Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB) stars are important players in the chemical evolution modelling of galaxies, because they are major producers of several chemical elements and excellent tracers of the structure and of the star formation…
In this review we explore aspects of the field of astrobiology from an astronomical viewpoint. We therefore focus on the origin of life in the context of planetary formation, with additional emphasis on tracing the most abundant volatile…
Almost all chemical elements have been made by nucleosynthetic reactions in various kind of stars and have been accumulated along our cosmic history. Among those elements, the origin of phosphorus is of extreme interest because it is known…
The asymptotic giant branch (AGB) phase of stellar evolution is common to most stars of low and intermediate mass. Most of the carbon and nitrogen in the Universe is produced by AGB stars. The final fate of the AGB envelopes are represented…
The determination of heavy element abundances from planetary nebula (PN) spectra provides an exciting opportunity to study the nucleosynthesis occurring in the progenitor asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star. We perform post-processing…
High-resolution, high signal-to-noise spectral data are presented for four young B-type stars lying towards the Galactic Centre. Determination of their atmospheric parameters from their absorption line profiles, and uvby photometric…
Metal-poor stars hold the key to our understanding of the origin of the elements and the chemical evolution of the Universe. This chapter describes the process of discovery of these rare stars, the manner in which their surface abundances…
The oldest stars in the universe retain to a great extent detailed information on the chemical composition of the interstellar medium at the time of their birth. Hence the earliest phases of Galactic chemical evolution and nucleosynthesis…
Curiously, our Universe was born in a low entropy state, with abundant free energy to power stars and life. The form that this free energy takes is usually thought to be gravitational: the Universe is almost perfectly smooth, and so can…