Tags
Chemical Evolution, Cosmic Evolution, elements, fuse, fusion, hydrogen, periodic table, periodic table of elements, science, uranium
In my 2nd article ever on Across the fruited Plain, I explained how I categorize the term “evolution” into six basic categories. Five of those categories are completely religious in nature and are not observable, testable or demonstrable within the realm of Science. They require faith in order to believe they occurred.
One of the unobserved and unexplained categories of evolution is Chemical Evolution. In order for the universe to have emerged, after the Cosmic Evolution of Time, Space, and Matter, all coming into existence and doing so at the exact same time, there must have been Chemical Evolution. That means that all of the elements, including Uranium (U), must have evolved from Hydrogen (H).
But is this possible?
The answer is no.
Some protest that Uranium (U) could have in fact evolved from Hydrogen (H) through fusion.
The fact of the matter is however, that those who know their fusion know that you cannot fuse past Iron (Fe).
Therefore, all of the known elements cannot be accounted for from Hydrogen alone.
Once that conundrum is addressed, I would like to know which came first:
Did the stars create the elements or did the elements create the stars?
To my mind and knowledge, no one is intelligibly addressing these questions.
Whilst I’m no physicist, my understanding is that iron although iron can’t undergo fusion it can still undergo nuclear reactions. The fusion of the lighter elements produced energy which counteracted gravity, keeping the star stable.
However when iron starts to reach the incredibly high temperatures found in the cores of dying stars it undergoes nuclear reaction, like the elements before it. But because it is so stable this process results in a net loss of energy because so much is needed to break it apart. As such the energy that is keeping the star stable isn’t produced. So the star explodes.
In the course of the supernova the constituent parts of the exploding iron core (neutrons, protons etc.) get flung in all directions. When they hit the outer layers of the star they mingle with the atoms already there, adding neutrons to them.
These enriched elements are the heavier elements of the periodic table with all the neutrons from the core adding to their atomic mass, moving them up the periodic table. As the star continues to explode these outer layers with the heavy elements are blown off into space where they make the next generation of stars and the whole thing happens again. The sun, for example, is a third generation star.
This process is used on earth (albeit with less supernovas) to produce the synthetic elements such as einsteinium. Nuclear reactors or other similar equipment is used to bombard lighter elements with neutrons, moving them up the periodic table.