Something is troubling astronomers . While lithium was   one of the few elements create in the Big Bang ,   for some reason it is 10 time more prevalent in young star than honest-to-goodness ones . And uranologist haveno ideawhy .

But a essential stone’s throw towards resolve this question has been made . For the first time , lithium has beenfound[link to compact release when it travel on here]in cloth ejected from a nova – a smaller stellar explosion than a supernova – capping 25 years of research .   Astronomers had speculate previously that nova might be responsible for feeding young star with lithium , but this is the first lineal evidence that this could be true .

The squad , led by Luca Izzo from the University of Rome , used the FEROS instrument on theMPG / ESO 2.2 - metre telescopeat theLa Silla Observatory , as well the PUCHEROS spectrograph on the ESO 0.5 - metre telescope at theObservatory of the PontificiaUniversidad Catolica de Chile in Santa Martina near Santiago , to make thediscovery .

They hit the books Nova Centauri 2013   ( V1369 Centauri ) , the detonation of which wasvisibleto the naked centre   from southern skies on Earth in December 2013 , the brightest nova this century .

Less than a one-billionth the mass of the Sun ’s Charles Frederick Worth of lithium was spy coming from the nova at two million kilometers ( 1.2 million miles ) per 60 minutes   –   a tiny amount , but with trillion of nova expect in the history of the Milky Way alone , it all adds up . The squad said the quantities were sufficient to solve the long - resist atomic number 3 job .

" It is a very crucial footfall forward , ” said co - author on the written report Massimo Della Valle from INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte , Naples , and ICRANet , Pescara , Italy in astatement .

“ If we imagine the history of the chemical development of the Milky Way as a big scroll saw , then lithium from nova was one of the most important and puzzling missing piece of music . In addition , any model of the Big Bang can be interview until the lithium brain-teaser is understood . ”

And , perhaps , we now may be on the verge of finally   realize it .