TNRTB Archive – Retained for reference information
Studies of aluminum (26Al) production in the Milky Way Galaxy provide additional support for RTB’s creation model and the fine-tuning it predicts. Aluminum is one of many life-essential heavy elements produced by nucleosynthesis, the process by which elements are built up from protons and neutrons. 26Al decays with a half-life around 100,000 thousand years, so it serves as a good measure of nucleosynthesis in our galaxy. A team of scientists measuring the gamma-rays emitted when 26Al decays demonstrated that the sources of 26Al are distributed throughout the Milky Way Galaxy. From the abundance of aluminum astronomers also measured the number of core collapse supernovae (death explosions of massive stars) to be about two events per century. This rate exhibits fine-tuning because if it were smaller, not enough heavy elements would be distributed throughout our galaxy and incorporated into future stars. If the rate were larger, too many supernovae would occur close to the solar system, causing mass extinctions on Earth. RTB’s creation model predicts such fine-tuning as the work of a supernatural Creator who prepares a fit habitat for humanity.
Roland Diehl et al., “Radioactive 26Al from Massive Stars in the Galaxy,” Nature 439 (2006): 45-47.
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