Mystery around actinides deepens as researchers challenge study on heavy elements’ origin

Hypernovae – a very rare type of supernova – produced most of the actinides in the universe, researchers claim. Their discovery challenges a study published just days earlier that had identified a neutron star collision near the early solar system as the source of the solar system’s heavy elements.

Now a team led by Daniel Siegel from Columbia University, US, show that heavy elements were more likely produced by the explosive death of stars at least 40 times more massive than the sun.