Nucleosynthesis – bookmark

I am proud to tell you about this work, which was made as a gift on the occasion of receiving a professorship in the field of astrophysics by prof. Agnieszka Pollo from the closest associates of the institute. She is an extraordinary mind who, even before the age of 50, obtained this academic title in an extremely outstanding field. She works in the area of observational cosmology and extragalactic astrophysics. She investigates how to reconstruct the properties of the entire Universe and the distribution of dark matter on the basis of the distribution of galaxies visible in various ranges of radiation. She co-created the VIMOS VLT Deep Suvey (VVDS) deep galaxy survey. She headed the Polish deep sky survey VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey (VIPERS). The collected data allowed to create the largest three-dimensional map of the Universe from the time when it was twice as young as it is today. She uses classical statistical methods and modern machine learning algorithms. She coordinates the activities of the Polish part of the Swiss-Polish-Chinese-German team that is building the POLAR-2 experiment, in which from 2024 gamma-ray bursts will be observed from the Chinese space station. She and her team also participate in the study of galaxies and quasars in the “window to the extragalactic world” at the northern ecliptic pole.

My design of this bookmark is a graphic representation of nucleosynthesis. The stars burn light elements (Hydrogen) and as a conclusion of that reaction, a heavier element appears (Helium) and energy. This is a step-by-step diagram of that process. At the top of the necklace is a STAR (silver with 24k gold flakes). Under the star, there are 2 hydrogen atoms (black silver). Hydrogen in its simple form is build with a single proton. When those 2 hydrogen atoms connect, they create another form of hydrogene, but with a NEUTRON (bright silver) in the atomic nucleus – deuter. During that process a positron (small black circle) and a neutrino (small bright circle) escape. When a deuter and a hydrogen connect, they create a large amount of energy (24k gold circle), burn and create a single Helium-3 particle. When two Helium-3 particles join, they create a single Helium-4 particle and two free Hydrogen particles. And the whole process starts again. The gold circle is the symbol of the energy, which makes the sun hot and basically gives life to our planet.

With time, the stars burn Helium and other, creating all the known elements from the Mendeleev’s Table, getting so heavy, that the gravity causes them to collapse, explode and….. – that’s where we got our all elements to build out bodies from.

Materials: silver, 24k gold

Dimensions: 12,5 cm x 3,5 cm

Weight: 11g

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