Before the planets in our solar system formed or the sun turned on and started shining, two other stars had to die. Their deaths and later collision would seed the area where our area with many of the heavy materials needed for life on Earth. Now, 4.6 billion years later, astronomers are piecing together the story of these long-dead stars.

To do this, researchers studied different ways to make the heavy elements in question – exploding stars or violent collisions between stars – along wit