The Creation of Everything That
We See Another view: In fact a star
such as Betelgeuse is almost 100 times the size of the star we call the
sun. The gravity eventually becomes so great that it forces the
atoms of hydrogen close together. The quantum nature of every particle in the Universe, and the fact that their positions are described by wavefunctions with an inherent quantum uncertainty to their position, and their overlap enables two hydrogen nucleuses to fuse in the center of these stars. Otherwise the fusion would never have happened. The overwhelming majority of today’s stars in the Universe would never have ignited, including our own. Rather than a world and a sky alight with the nuclear fires burning across the cosmos, our Universe would be desolate and frozen, with the vast majority of stars and solar systems unlit by anything other than a cold, rare, distant starlight. It’s the power of quantum mechanics that allows the Sun to shine. In a fundamental way without quantum functions, the nuclear flame that powers the stars would never light, and the life-giving fusion that occurs in our Sun's core would never come to be. Yet with this randomness, we win the cosmic lottery all the time, to the continuous tune of hundreds of Yottawatts of power. Thanks to the fundamental quantum uncertainty inherent in the Universe, we've achieved a chance at existence. When two protons meet each other in the Sun, their
wavefunctions overlap, allowing the temporary creation of helium-2: a
diproton. Almost always, it simply splits back into two protons, but on
very rare occasions, a stable nucleus called deuteron (hydrogen-2) is
produced (the atom is called deuterium). Deuterium (with a proton and a
neutron in the nucleus) almost immediately combines with another
deuterium, and helium-4 (two protons and two neutrons) is created.
This fusion releases energy. The same explosive energy found
in the hydrogen bomb. Each of the colors in the above image indicate a different kind of atom being created. Starting with hydrogen, the creation of helium, oxygen, carbon, neon, nitrogen, magnesium, silicon, and others are also created due to the pressure and heat inside the star. These new atoms, as they are created, also release energy - bombs if you will, exploding deep inside the sun. Helium atoms mashed together create carbon. The mass of the hydrogen atoms is more than the resulting carbon atom, the excess mass that is lost is converted into energy. These explosions support the outer layers of the sun. Gravity acting on the sun is so great that it would collapse if it still were not setting off the explosions inside! Heavier and heavier atoms are created...... This creation of new elements happens until the element iron is created. Iron has commonly 30 protons, but iron does not combine with other atoms. Adding pressure and heat only heats up the iron. It does not combine to create another different element and thus does not provide an explosion.
The iron just gets hot, it does not combine with other elements. As nothing is holding the sun's shape, something has to give.
But the left over neutron star is a dead body, hanging around in space. Only when two of these collide do we get more elements released! Could dark matter be partly trillions of these scattered all over the universe? Experiments have shown that this is not the case, not enough matter was created in the big bang to account for dark matter. Some think that half of Dark Matter is filaments of baryon, roughly half of the normal matter in our universe – protons, neutrons and electrons – unaccounted for by previous observations of stars, galaxies and other bright objects in space. Baryon is a subatomic particle, such as a nucleon or hyperon, that has a mass equal to or greater than that of a proton. The dust from the star explosion, and hydrogen gas,
make up new stars and the planets around them. Maybe the explosion does
not make just dust. Maybe some chunks are thrown out. The core of our earth for
instance maybe! The closer the dust cloud, now aggregated to become a
planet, is to a sun, the more solid it becomes as the hydrogen is pulled
off. Chunks striking the earth cause friction, making the proto earth a
molten mass at one time. Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune are the planets located farther
from the Sun, they are gas giants, leftover gas from the hydrogen/dust
cloud which was used to create our sun. They remain gas as they are so
far from the sun. The inner planets are solid left over dust. Image Credit & License: Wikipedia: Cmglee; Data: Jennifer Johnson (OSU) Explanation: The hydrogen in your body, present in every molecule of water, came from the Big Bang. There are no otherappreciable sources of hydrogen in the universe. The carbon in your body was made by nuclear fusion in the interior of stars, as was the oxygen. Much of the iron in your body was made during supernovas of stars that occurred long ago and far away. The gold in your jewelry was likely made from neutron stars during collisions that may have been visible as short-duration gamma-ray bursts or gravitational wave events. Elements like phosphorus and copper are present in our bodies in only small amounts but are essential to the functioning of all known life. The featured periodic table is color coded to indicate humanity's best guess as to the nuclear originof all known elements. The sites of nuclear creation of some elements, such as copper, are not really well known and are continuing topics of observational and computational research. THIS, WE ARE STARDUST!!
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