LAUSR

Reactions on atomic nuclei play a key role in understanding environments as diverse as hydrostatic stellar interiors, nuclear reactors, and explosions that occur in the death throes of a massive star. The field of nuclear astrophysics has been engaged in trying to interpret the role of nuclear reactions in producing the observed astronomical abundances in order to answer basic questions concerning stellar environments and the origin of the elements. It attempts to answer such basic questions as how do stars live, evolve, and die? Where are the chemical elements made? How they are dispersed throughout the solar system, galaxy, and universe? These questions have driven nuclear physics since Eddington first postulated the nuclear energy source in stars in 1920 and the modern theory of the origin of the elements was independently developed by Cameron and Burbidge, Burbidge, Fowler, and Hoyle in the late 1950s [1–3].