Researchers at Cern, the European center for particle physics in Geneva, recently launched an experiment in which a specially tuned laser beam called Isolde will blast targets of different materials. The aim is to create elements as they were first formed inside stars. Under intense pressures and temperatures that are found inside stars, hydrogen and helium atoms combine to form heavier elements. Relatively light elements, such as silicon and oxygen, are produced in this way. These two elements sometimes combine to form silicates, grains of sand which scientists have recently detected orbiting stars.
Space is a beach, in other words.
But heavier elements such as gold and silver cannot be made this way, scientists realize. They would break back down into lighter elements as they were being formed inside stars. So only a special mechanism can explain their creation. That mechanism occurs in large stars when fusion runs out of control. Layers of different elements are created in a spiral of increasing ferocity until a star explodes with fantastic force.