How the Atoms Were Made

Visual sources include third-party material incorporated into custom animations. License information is reproduced from source records; an unrecorded license does not mean a work is public domain.

• Fraunhofer lines

  Fraunhofer_lines.jpg : nl:Gebruiker:MaureenV Spectrum-sRGB.svg : Phrood~commonswiki Fraunhofer_lines_DE.svg : * Fraunhofer_lines.jpg : Saperaud 19:26, 5. Jul. 2005 derivative work: Cepheiden ( talk ) derivative work: Cepheiden ( talk )

  View original source ↗Public domain

• the solar spectrum image

  NASA

  View original source ↗License not recorded

• Cecilia Helena Payne Gaposchkin (1900-1979) (2)

  Smithsonian Institution from United States

  View original source ↗No restrictions

• image

  ESO

  View original source ↗License not recorded

• image

  ESO

  View original source ↗License not recorded

• evolution of supernova 1987a image

  NASA

  View original source ↗License not recorded

• weic2404a image

  Esawebb

  View original source ↗License not recorded

• image

  ESO

  View original source ↗License not recorded

• image

  ESO

  View original source ↗License not recorded

• Image result for query 'Carnegie Science Swope SSS17a discovery image NGC 4993'; source host: ziggy.ucolick.org; file: sss17a_n4993_label.jpg.

  Creator credit under review

  View original source ↗License not recorded

  Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

• image

  ESO

  View original source ↗License not recorded

• Scientific image

  Creator credit under review

  View original source ↗License not recorded

  Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

• Scientific image

  Creator credit under review

  View original source ↗License not recorded

  Incorporated into an explanatory animation; presentation may include cropping, labels and overlays.

• NASA’s IXPE May Have Proven 90-Year-Old Theory

  NASA

  View original source ↗License not recorded

• Hubble reveals the Ring Nebula’s true shape

  GSFC

  View original source ↗NASA media usage guidelines; often public-domain U.S. government work, verify item-specific restrictions.

• Murchison meteorite

  Art Bromage

  View original source ↗CC BY-SA 2.0

• Image result for query 'presolar grain Murchison silicon carbide SEM Field Museum'; source host: mpg.de; file: original-1326971914.jpg.

  MPG

  View original source ↗License not recorded

Research references

Selected sources from the episode’s research and scientific figures.

1. OpenStax’s pedagogical curve ↗
2. UCSD Physics 161 ↗
3. Ohio State Astronomy 162 ↗
4. Childress et al. ↗
5. Cosmic Connection to the Elements ↗
6. https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/educators/elements/imagine/05.html): ↗
7. Harvard Plate Stacks exhibit ↗
8. APS Payne history ↗
9. APS helium history ↗
10. Kitt Peak FTS solar spectrum ↗
11. NSO historical archive ↗
12. https://nso.edu/data/historical-archive/): ↗
13. ESO 1987 release ↗
14. Hirata et al., PRL ↗
15. Bozza et al. ↗
16. 1994–2006 sequence ↗
17. 1994–2003 scrapbook ↗
18. Rosu et al. 2024 ↗
19. Fransson et al., Science 383 (2024) ↗
20. NASA Webb release ↗
21. Ruiter & Seitenzahl et al., *Type Ia supernova progenitors: a contemporary view* ↗
22. Das et al., Nature Astronomy 9, 1356–1365 (2025) ↗
23. eso2511a ↗
24. eso2511b ↗
25. GW170817 paper/data record ↗
26. *Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger* ↗
27. Watson et al., Nature (2019) ↗
28. Levan et al., Nature (2023) ↗
29. changing brightness/color over 12 days ↗
30. GRB 230307A spectrum ↗
31. https://dcc.ligo.org/P170817/public/): ↗
32. https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2023/10/Kilonova_emission_spectrum): ↗
33. Patel et al., ApJL 984 L29 (2025) ↗
34. Tarumi et al. ↗
35. Siegel et al. 2019 ↗
36. 2026 r-process review ↗
37. Liu, Cristallo & Vescovi review ↗
38. Field Museum press material ↗
39. Field Museum research page ↗
40. Johnson, “Populating the periodic table,” Science 363 (2019) ↗
41. Commons file page ↗
42. NASA SVS 13873 ↗
43. Kobayashi et al. 2020, *The Origin of Elements from Carbon to Uranium* ↗
44. 2022 open review, “Origin of the elements” ↗

Music

• Meditation From The Star Orion
  OctahedronMusic · Envato Elements