Oxygen-16

This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Oxygen-16" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (August 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Oxygen-16 (¹⁶O) is a stable isotope of oxygen, having 8 neutrons and 8 protons in its nucleus. It has a mass of 15.99491461956 u. Oxygen-16 is the most abundant isotope of oxygen and accounts for 99.762% of oxygen's natural abundance. The relative and absolute abundance of ¹⁶O are high because it is a principal product of stellar evolution and because it is a primordial isotope, meaning it can be made by stars that were initially made exclusively of hydrogen. Most ¹⁶O is synthesized at the end of the helium fusion process in stars; the triple-alpha process creates ¹²C, which captures an additional ⁴He to make ¹⁶O. The neon-burning process creates additional ¹⁶O.

This isotope-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e