Where Your Elements Came From 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 other appreciable 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 origin of 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.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought stars could reliably fuse elements up to iron, at which point the production of iron is insufficient to maintain its internal pressure leading to the collapse and subsequent nova. Shouldn't all the elements up to 26 be some kind of green/blue? Then heavier elements are produced in the subsequent novas with the heaviest elements being products of super novas? Granted, I had no idea about this neutron star merging thing.
BucolicUrbanite on October 29th, 2017 at 04:40 UTC »
Where Your Elements Came From 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 other appreciable 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 origin of 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.
southernmaga on October 29th, 2017 at 05:10 UTC »
"The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself." - Carl Sagan
Are the dark grey elements all not naturally occurring?
kenshin13850 on October 29th, 2017 at 06:48 UTC »
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought stars could reliably fuse elements up to iron, at which point the production of iron is insufficient to maintain its internal pressure leading to the collapse and subsequent nova. Shouldn't all the elements up to 26 be some kind of green/blue? Then heavier elements are produced in the subsequent novas with the heaviest elements being products of super novas? Granted, I had no idea about this neutron star merging thing.