Did the Big Bang theory create Hydrogen, Helium, and some Lithium atoms, and then those elements formed stars? Where did the rest of the elements (besides the man made ones) come from? Was it chemical reactions within the stars?
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When a star dies, it goes through a runaway reaction where elements fuse rapidly in its core, and eventually the whole thing blows up. When this happens to extra-large stars, we call it a *supernova*, and the forces that are going on are powerful enough to create runaway fusion that creates *much* heavier elements than are typically found in the star.
So everything up to iron is formed through the normal workings of a star, through fusion, but iron is the endpoint of stellar fusion. Everything heavier is only created in the massively powerful conditions of a supernova. And the explosion disperses those elements throughout the universe, where they may eventually form into planets and other bodies.
So yes, in the early days of the universe, only the lighter elements existed, and it wasn’t until the first generations of stars had gone through their lifecycles and gone supernova that heavier elements were created and spread across the universe.
Yes, hydrogen, helium, and a small amount of lithium were formed in the aftermath of the Big Bang – around 5-10 minutes after the beginning.
All other elements in the Universe were formed in stars. However, they weren’t formed by *chemical* reactions (which cannot change one element into another). They were formed by *nuclear* reactions. The light elements are produced directly via fusion in stars, and the heavier elements are produced by one of a few processes that occur in the core of very large stars (or in the process of that core collapsing).
The big bang involved a ton of energy. The exact process that formed the matter in our universe is unclear, since every process we know of should also form just as much antimatter.
However, it would appear that as the universe cooled it was almost exclusively hydrogen. As gravity pulled this hydrogen together, stars formed, fusing the hydrogen to make heavier elements up to roughly where iron is on the periodic table.
Anything heavier than that requires huge amounts of energy. Most likely supernovae or neutron star collisions.
starting from hydrogen everything on the periodic table up to iron is created by fusion in a stars core, everything heavier is created in the various type of novae.
The Big Bang didn’t create *any* elements. The End of the expansion period *after* the Big Bang allowed for the formation (from energy) of basic elements like Hydrogen, Helium and *maybe* Lithium. Atoms met other atoms and formed chemical bonds, increasing their gravity and allowing them to collect more and more atoms until planets, stars, and galaxies were formed. Stars have enough mass to cause *fusion* reactions in their cores which allowed for the creation of heavier elements at least as high up on the periodic table as iron (and maybe a little beyond that). When the star reaches a certain *age* (pla e in its fusion life cycle) it can collapse into a white dwarf, a brown dwarf, or explore in a nova or supernova (there are other edge cases), and if it collapses and novas, those heavier elements are redistributed into the universe at large. The formation of elements much above iron are less understood, but *may* have been formed in black hole collisions, neutron star bursts, or quark or strange star emanations, we’re not 99% sure. We *are* sure that it is some solar+ sized process, though.
Did the Big Bang theory create Hydrogen, Helium, and some Lithium atoms, and then those elements formed stars? Where did the rest of the elements (besides the man made ones) come from? Was it chemical reactions within the stars?
In: 3
When a star dies, it goes through a runaway reaction where elements fuse rapidly in its core, and eventually the whole thing blows up. When this happens to extra-large stars, we call it a *supernova*, and the forces that are going on are powerful enough to create runaway fusion that creates *much* heavier elements than are typically found in the star.
So everything up to iron is formed through the normal workings of a star, through fusion, but iron is the endpoint of stellar fusion. Everything heavier is only created in the massively powerful conditions of a supernova. And the explosion disperses those elements throughout the universe, where they may eventually form into planets and other bodies.
So yes, in the early days of the universe, only the lighter elements existed, and it wasn’t until the first generations of stars had gone through their lifecycles and gone supernova that heavier elements were created and spread across the universe.
Yes, hydrogen, helium, and a small amount of lithium were formed in the aftermath of the Big Bang – around 5-10 minutes after the beginning.
All other elements in the Universe were formed in stars. However, they weren’t formed by *chemical* reactions (which cannot change one element into another). They were formed by *nuclear* reactions. The light elements are produced directly via fusion in stars, and the heavier elements are produced by one of a few processes that occur in the core of very large stars (or in the process of that core collapsing).
The big bang involved a ton of energy. The exact process that formed the matter in our universe is unclear, since every process we know of should also form just as much antimatter.
However, it would appear that as the universe cooled it was almost exclusively hydrogen. As gravity pulled this hydrogen together, stars formed, fusing the hydrogen to make heavier elements up to roughly where iron is on the periodic table.
Anything heavier than that requires huge amounts of energy. Most likely supernovae or neutron star collisions.
starting from hydrogen everything on the periodic table up to iron is created by fusion in a stars core, everything heavier is created in the various type of novae.
The Big Bang didn’t create *any* elements. The End of the expansion period *after* the Big Bang allowed for the formation (from energy) of basic elements like Hydrogen, Helium and *maybe* Lithium. Atoms met other atoms and formed chemical bonds, increasing their gravity and allowing them to collect more and more atoms until planets, stars, and galaxies were formed. Stars have enough mass to cause *fusion* reactions in their cores which allowed for the creation of heavier elements at least as high up on the periodic table as iron (and maybe a little beyond that). When the star reaches a certain *age* (pla e in its fusion life cycle) it can collapse into a white dwarf, a brown dwarf, or explore in a nova or supernova (there are other edge cases), and if it collapses and novas, those heavier elements are redistributed into the universe at large. The formation of elements much above iron are less understood, but *may* have been formed in black hole collisions, neutron star bursts, or quark or strange star emanations, we’re not 99% sure. We *are* sure that it is some solar+ sized process, though.
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