Cosmic explosions and the origin of the elements

We will study how massive stars evolve and die, how they
explode and synthesize most of the elements heavier than helium.
Their terminal explosions are so bright that they are the most distant
single objects we can observe in the Universe. We will use
large-scale numerical computer simulations to model the life and death of
these stars in order to understand the chemical evolution of the
universe and its galaxies including what ended up to form our solar
system. Outbursts observed from the surface layers of neutron stars
are less spectacular at first glance, but are the most common
thermonuclear explosions in nature. Modeling these allows us unique
insights to the properties of nuclear matter at extreme conditions and
high densities.