The discovery of stable ''isotopes" began with J. J. Thomson's identification of neon-22 in 1912 (Bievre et al., 1984). More than 90 naturally occurring elements have been identified on the earth; ...

About 4.6 billion years ago, some event disturbed a cloud of gas and dust, triggering the gravitational collapse that led to the formation of the solar system. A core-collapse supernova, whose shock ...