Why do astronomers consider everything heavier than helium to be a metal?
In: Physics
Most elements *are* metals. Everything on the periodic table to the lower left of a diagonal line from Boron to Polonium is at least arguably a metal. This leaves only around ~15 out of the 90 naturally occurring elements that are definitely nonmetals, so out of ~~laziness~~ a desire for simplicity they just call all heavy-elements “metals”. Its close enough; just because we care about Carbon and Nitrogen and Oxygen more than average, doesn’t mean that the rest of the universe shares our bias.
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