The purpose of this site is to review the stages by which atomic nuclei have formed, thus creating the atoms of which the universe is composed. This process is called NUCLEOSYNTHESIS, and has occurred in two main stages:

1. In the Beginning (i.e. The Big Bang)
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Upon completion, this stage created the light elements (mostly H and He) from which the universe was formed.

2. Inside of stars
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This is the following stage, still in progress today, where the starting blocks of H and He are combined to form high mass elements within stars.

This web page was created by Kipp Penovich under the direction of Professor George Smoot.