Ars
Technica: Observations of the interstellar gas in the Small
Magellanic Cloud—a satellite galaxy of the Milky
Way—have shown that the levels of lithium match
theoretical predictions. Because Li contains so few protons and
neutrons, most of it that exists in the universe is believed to
have been created within the first three minutes after the Big
Bang. However, the Li levels that have been derived from
observations within the Milky Way were much lower than levels
calculated from theories of primordial nucleosynthesis. Because
the Small Magellanic Cloud does not contain a large
concentration of heavier elements, the spectra of its
interstellar gas were simpler and therefore yielded more
accurate measurements of the proportions of lithium in the
gas.
