ASU: Stellar Explosions Found to Be Producers of Lithium

[bystander]

Class of Stellar Explosions Found to Be Galactic Producers of Lithium
Arizona State University | 2020 Jun 01

Artist’s interpretation of the explosion of a recurrent nova, RS Ophiuchi. This is a binary star in the constellation of Ophiuchus and is approximately 5,000 light-years away. It explodes roughly every 20 years when the gas flowing from the large star that falls onto the white dwarf reaches temperatures exceeding 10 million degrees. Illustration: David A. Hardy

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A team of researchers ... has combined theory with both observations and laboratory studies and determined that a class of stellar explosions, called classical novae, are responsible for most of the lithium in our galaxy and solar system. ...

“Given the importance of lithium to common uses like heat-resistant glass and ceramics, lithium batteries and lithium-ion batteries, and mood altering chemicals, it is nice to know where this element comes from,” says Starrfield ... “And improving our understanding of the sources of the elements out of which our bodies and the solar system are made is important.”

The team has gone on to determine that a fraction of these classical novae will evolve until they explode as supernovae of Type Ia. These exploding stars become brighter than a galaxy and can be discovered at very large distances in the universe.

As such, they are being used to study the evolution of the universe and were the supernovae used in the mid-1990s to discover dark energy, which is causing the expansion of the universe to accelerate. They also produce much of the iron in the galaxy and solar system, an important constituent of our red blood cells, which carry oxygen throughout the body. ...

Carbon–Oxygen Classical Novae Are Galactic ^₇Li Producers
as well as Potential Supernova Ia Progenitors ~ Sumner Starrfield et al

• Astrophysical Journal 895(1):70 (2020 May 20) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab8d23
• arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1910.00575 > 01 Oct 2019