{"id":209026,"date":"2025-03-18T13:14:54","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T18:14:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/nanomaterials-used-to-measure-first-nuclear-reaction-on-radioactive-nuclei-produced-in-neutron-star-collisions"},"modified":"2025-03-18T13:14:54","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T18:14:54","slug":"nanomaterials-used-to-measure-first-nuclear-reaction-on-radioactive-nuclei-produced-in-neutron-star-collisions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/03\/nanomaterials-used-to-measure-first-nuclear-reaction-on-radioactive-nuclei-produced-in-neutron-star-collisions","title":{"rendered":"Nanomaterials used to measure first nuclear reaction on radioactive nuclei produced in neutron star collisions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/nanomaterials-used-to-measure-first-nuclear-reaction-on-radioactive-nuclei-produced-in-neutron-star-collisions.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Physicists have measured a nuclear reaction that can occur in neutron star collisions, providing direct experimental data for a process that had previously only been theorized. The study, led by the University of Surrey, provides new insight into how the universe\u2019s heaviest elements are forged\u2014and could even drive advancements in nuclear reactor physics.<\/p>\n<p>Working in collaboration with the University of York, the University of Seville, and TRIUMF, Canada\u2019s national particle accelerator center, the breakthrough marks the first-ever measurement of a weak r-process reaction cross-section using a radioactive ion beam, in this case studying the <sup>94 <\/sup>Sr(\u03b1, n)<sup>97 <\/sup>Zr reaction. This is where a radioactive form of strontium (strontium-94) absorbs an <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/alpha+particle\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">alpha particle<\/a> (a <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/helium\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">helium<\/a> nucleus), then emits a neutron and transforms into zirconium-97.<\/p>\n<p>The study has been <a href=\"https:\/\/link.aps.org\/doi\/10.1103\/PhysRevLett.134.112701\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in Physical Review Letters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Physicists have measured a nuclear reaction that can occur in neutron star collisions, providing direct experimental data for a process that had previously only been theorized. The study, led by the University of Surrey, provides new insight into how the universe\u2019s heaviest elements are forged\u2014and could even drive advancements in nuclear reactor physics. Working in [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":732,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,873,48,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-209026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nanotechnology","category-nuclear-energy","category-particle-physics","category-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/732"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209026\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}