ScienceDaily: Space & Time News


Nova explosions alone cannot explain amount of lithium in current universe

Posted: 07 Jul 2021 08:24 AM PDT

A new study of lithium production in a classical nova found a production rate of only a couple of percent that seen in other examples. This shows that there is a large diversity within classical novae and implies that nova explosions alone cannot explain the amount of lithium seen in the current Universe. This is an important result for understanding both the explosion mechanism of classical novae and the overall chemical evolution of the Universe.