'Europium stars' in the dwarf galaxy Fornax lend new insight into the origin of the elements

Europium is the key for understanding the formation of the heavy elements by the fast neutron capture process, the so-called r-process. This is crucial both for the formation of half of the elements heavier than iron and for the total abundance of thorium and uranium in the universe. The EUROPIUM group has combined theoretical astrophysical simulations with observations of the oldest stars in our Galaxy and in dwarf galaxies. The latter are small, dark-matter dominated galaxies orbiting our Gala...