For decades scientists have asked where gold, platinum and uranium come from. The ENGRAVE team has provided the most compelling answer to date. ENGRAVE has shown how the universe’s heaviest elements are forged in rare and powerful supernova explosions. These events act as factories for heavy elements that make up two thirds of the periodic table, including precious metals, rare earths and uranium. In revealing this process the team is shedding light on the very building blocks of both the Earth and humanity.
New European Research Prize Recognises Breakthrough on the Origins of Earth’s Building Blocks
The elements that form our planet and our bodies originate from cataclysmic collisions between stars. This insight has earned the ENGRAVE collaboration, which includes researchers from Radboud University, the first ever ‘Into Change Award’.
Fingerprints
Astronomer Andrew Levan is professor at Radboud University and has been heavily involved in the project: ‘The work in ENGRAVE has focused on finding the fingerprints of heavy elements in fleeting flashes of light. This is no mean-feat, these sources are faint, they emit most of their light redder than the eye can see and to secure the observations to you have to act fast.’ Astrophysicist Peter Jonker from Radboud University adds: ‘The success of ENGRAVE comes from realising that European research is stronger together than apart, and this has helped us to build a large, diverse and extremely capable collaboration.’
This work has redefined our understanding of how many elements are formed, including those critical to life as we know it on Earth. ‘It is a great honour for ENGRAVE to be recognised in this award’, adds Levan. ‘We hope in the next few years to answer the question of where each and every element we know of comes from, and ENGRAVE is poised to play a critical role in this quest.’
The ‘Into Change Award’, presented by Minister for Higher Education and Science Christina Egelund, recognises outstanding European research and the values that underpin it: curiosity, collaboration, responsibility, respect and openness. The prize will be awarded on 15 December in Copenhagen.
Contact information
For further information, please contact one of the researchers involved or team Science communication via +31 24 361 6000 or media [at] ru.nl (media[at]ru[dot]nl).
- Organizational unit
- Faculty of Science, Institute for Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics, Astrophysics
- Theme
- Universe