Saturday, November 3, 2018

Elements - What the universe is made of.



-  2150  -   -  Each element has a unique fingerprint in its light spectrum.  The youngest stars had thousands of overlapping fingerprints because they were made from several generations of earlier stars.  Stars in the earlier universe had far less complex mixtures of elements.  That made it easier to sort each element out of the mix.
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---------------------------  2150   -  Elements -  What the universe is made of.
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-  In the 19th century astronomers first discovered the light spectrum coming from distant stars.  The spectrums had some missing colors, some dark absorption lines.  They soon realized that these missing colors revealed the elements present in the light source of each star.  Each element absorbs a  unique set  of colors.  No two elements have the same fingerprint of colors absorbed, wavelengths of energy that allow electrons to jump between energy levels.
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-  Astronomers later realized that the width of these absorption lines was a function of how fast the star was receding away from us.  Therefore, how far the star was form us and how early in the universe creation it was born.
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-  By 1957 astronomers realized that all the elements heavier than hydrogen, helium, and lithium were created in the cores of stars after the Big Bang had cooled to 3,000 degrees, after about 3 minutes.  These heavier elements were spread throughout space when each star exploded at the end of its life.
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-  Each element has a unique fingerprint in its light spectrum.  The youngest stars had thousands of overlapping fingerprints because they were made from several generations of earlier stars.  Stars in the earlier universe had far less complex mixtures of elements.  That made it easier to sort each element out of the mix.
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-  These were the older more pristine stars but rare because they have died soon after our 13.8 billion year old universe began.  Astronomers have found only 5 stars that each hold 1/100,000 or less of the amount of heavy elements that are in our Sun.  These are those early pristine first generation stars
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-  Gravity compresses the core of a star to where temperatures reach 27,000,000 degrees F.  This heat and high temperatures cause the atom's electrons to become unattached from their nuclei.  Nuclear reaction cause hydrogen atom nuclei to combine to create helium nuclei.  This nuclear reaction radiates gamma rays that radiate out from the core.  This is the outward pressure that prevents the star from collapsing due to immense gravity that is trying to compress it.
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-  As the gamma rays work their way out of the star they lose energy.  When they reach the surface some have the energy of optical light.  The star shines.  We can see the optical light but actually the star's radiation stretches from gamma rays to radio waves, including the optical light we can see. 
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-  When this light leaves the star's atmosphere the radiation that is absorbed at specific frequencies identifies each element of the gas that the light passes through..  Each color is precisely the frequency, or wavelength, that the element needs to boost its electron to another energy level.  Each element has different electron orbit shells and therefore different energy gaps.  Energy level is a function of wavelength. 
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-  Most of the elements up to iron are created in the star's core where temperatures and pressures are most extreme.  All the elements up to iron, that has 26 protons in its nucleus, releases its energy through nuclear fusion.  It takes more energy than nuclear fusion can generate in order to create elements heavier than iron.  A more violent process is needed in order to create elements heavier than iron.
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-  A "neutron capture process" is needed to create these heavier elements.  This occurs when captured neutrons turn themselves into a proton -electron. This process cannot resist the enormous pressure of gravity and the stars surface collapses into the core.  The massive rebound at the core explodes into a supernova explosion of enormous energies.
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-  Studying these stellar explosions is no easy task.  It takes the combined disciplines of atomic physics, spectroscopy, computer modeling, and astrophysics.  These teams are working together to understand how stars explode, how the heavier elements are created, and how we came to be out of the cosmos.
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-  We mostly mentioned hydrogen and helium as the first elements produced in the Big Bang.  But, there were traces of other elements also produced in those first three minutes.  One is deuterium which adds a neutron to the nucleus of hydrogen.  It is also called heavy hydrogen.  
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-  Lithium is another one of those trace elements.  Lithium has 3 protons in the nucleus.  Only recently have astronomers detected lithium being produced in supernovae.  They have also found the element beryllium, and beryllium decays into lithium.  Supernovae may have produced as much as 80% of the non-primordial lithium.  
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-  Other Reviews about the Elements,  See also Chemistry
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-  1757  -  How do stars create energy?  How do they create the elements .  The Big Bang created only a few elements, mostly hydrogen and helium. Our Sun will sustain fusion of hydrogen into helium for 10 billion years. Somehow supernovae explosions have produced all the heavier elements like iron, gold, and silver.  Our most powerful particle accelerators still cannot do that.
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-  1644  -  California's green energy and how the rare earth metals are running our knowledge economy.  This reviews tells you what the rare earth metals are and how we get them.
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-  1297  -  There are 92 natural elements.  Our human bodies are made up of a few dozens of these.  We are 61% oxygen and 22% carbon.
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-  1154  -  What was created in the first 3 minutes of the Universe?  After that we have to wait another 100,000,000 years for the stars to create more elements. 
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-  1153  -  Where did the elements come from?  The heavier elements all came from stars dying.  From ashes to ashes.   Everything formed from the multiple generations of stars that will eventually cool and go dark.
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-  825  -  Creating the first element.  There are 116 elements in today's Periodic Table.  When measuring elements in the Universe 74% is hydrogen, 24% is helium.  Only 2% is left for the other 114 elements. That 2% is all star dust from exploding supernovae.
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-  November 3, 2018.      
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 ---------------------   Saturday, November 03, 2018         -------------------------
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