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Challenge #59

Understanding the stars.

With accelerator and laser facilities from DESY, HZDR, and GSI/FAIR, we take a look inside stars and planets to understand them and to synthesize materials with new and improved properties.

Participating centers

Since the dawn of time, people have looked up at the night sky and tried to make sense of what they saw up there. However, very little research has been done on the inside of celestial bodies. One thing is certain: understanding the insides of stars better will also help us to understand how the elements we find everywhere, including on our planet, are formed. Scientists of the Helmholtz Association recreate the extreme states of planetary and stellar matter in the laboratory and study them using sophisticated physical methods. The resulting knowledge then serves as the basis for making better physical models of celestial bodies in order to expand our understanding of the processes taking place inside them.

With accelerators and laser facilities at participating Helmholtz Centers, for example, we are studying the complex chain reactions occurring inside stars. Such investigations take us into the world of exotic atomic nuclei, enabling us, among other things, to develop new, useful materials with improved properties.

(Header: J. Hosan/GSI/FAIR)

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