"Unveiling the Secrets of Carbon-12: A Journey into the Heart of Life's Core Element"
An international team of researchers has decoded the complex structure of the carbon-12 nucleus, discovering that its low-energy states are composed of alpha particles arranged in triangular shapes. This finding is significant for understanding the formation of carbon in the universe, particularly in helium-burning stars, due to the Hoyle state's facilitation of carbon production. The study utilized supercomputers and nuclear lattice simulations to achieve these insights, which are consistent with experimental data and provide a model-independent density map of carbon-12's nuclear states.