Antares, the bright orange heart of the scorpion, stands low in the south at nightfall. It’s one of the biggest and heaviest stars in the galaxy. As such, it’s busily creating new elements in its core and in layers around the core. And before long, it’ll explode as a supernova, which will create even more elements. Understanding that process of creation was one of the major accomplishments of British scientist Fred Hoyle, who was born 100 years ago today. By the 1940s, astrophysicists had already discovered that stars like the Sun shine by “fusing” hydrogen atoms to make helium, which releases a lot of energy. But they were unclear about how all the other elements were created. It didn’t seem possible to make them in stars. Hoyle published several papers explaining that it was possible. He found a process by which three helium atoms could combine to make carbon. And he calculated that massive stars could create most of the other elements — either in their cores, or during their violent
