2001ApJ...561L..97T

The origin of nucleosynthesis products of rapid neutron capture reactions (the r-process) is a long-standing astrophysical problem. Recent analyses of elemental abundances for extremely metal-poor stars shed light on the elemental abundances of individual supernovae. Comparison of the abundance distributions of some extremely metal-poor stars with those of the best-observed supernova SN 1987A clearly indicates that the overabundances of barium and strontium found in SN 1987A that have been ascribed to the slow neutron capture process must be results of r-process nucleosynthesis. The mass of freshly synthesized barium in SN 1987A is estimated to be 6x10^–6 M_☉ based on the observed surface abundance and detailed hydrodynamical models for this supernova. These new findings lead to the conclusion that 20 M_☉ stars, one of which is the progenitor star of SN 1987A, are the predominant production sites for r-process elements in the Galaxy and the r-process element donors for notable neutron capture-rich giant stars, CS 22892-052 and CS 31082-001.