Why is Helium so difficult to synthesize?
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There are no element that are easy to “synthesize” since any element requires fusion to be created… And fusion requires an astronomical amount of energy to be achieved.
Maybe you’re thinking like, how we can get Hydrogen easily enough from “natural resources”. Say, break down water or methane into hydrogen and some other chemical.
You can’t do the same thing with Helium because it’s a noble gas. It doesn’t create chemical reactions with other elements. Helium will always be helium and nothing else.
Maybe you’re thinking like, how we can get Hydrogen easily enough from “natural resources”. Say, break down water or methane into hydrogen and some other chemical.
You can’t do the same thing with Helium because it’s a noble gas. It doesn’t create chemical reactions with other elements. Helium will always be helium and nothing else.
Maybe you’re thinking like, how we can get Hydrogen easily enough from “natural resources”. Say, break down water or methane into hydrogen and some other chemical.
You can’t do the same thing with Helium because it’s a noble gas. It doesn’t create chemical reactions with other elements. Helium will always be helium and nothing else.
Helium is a chemical element.
Chemical elements appear on the periodic table.
A chemical element is a substance that can not be broken down into other substances. (In most cases)
Chemical elements are made from a combination of protons, neutrons, and electrons.
Chemical elements are made by the process of nuclear fusion. This involves squashing protons and neutrons together really hard to they stick together and form an element.
We know that elements up until iron are made in stars like our sun. Our sun uses hydrogen as a fuel source. It squashes together hydrogen atoms to produce energy, and, as a result, helium is made.
Helium is difficult to synthesise because we can not replicate the conditions inside the sun in a controlled way. Other ways we make Helium are by a thermonuclear explosion.
Helium is a chemical element.
Chemical elements appear on the periodic table.
A chemical element is a substance that can not be broken down into other substances. (In most cases)
Chemical elements are made from a combination of protons, neutrons, and electrons.
Chemical elements are made by the process of nuclear fusion. This involves squashing protons and neutrons together really hard to they stick together and form an element.
We know that elements up until iron are made in stars like our sun. Our sun uses hydrogen as a fuel source. It squashes together hydrogen atoms to produce energy, and, as a result, helium is made.
Helium is difficult to synthesise because we can not replicate the conditions inside the sun in a controlled way. Other ways we make Helium are by a thermonuclear explosion.
Helium is a chemical element.
Chemical elements appear on the periodic table.
A chemical element is a substance that can not be broken down into other substances. (In most cases)
Chemical elements are made from a combination of protons, neutrons, and electrons.
Chemical elements are made by the process of nuclear fusion. This involves squashing protons and neutrons together really hard to they stick together and form an element.
We know that elements up until iron are made in stars like our sun. Our sun uses hydrogen as a fuel source. It squashes together hydrogen atoms to produce energy, and, as a result, helium is made.
Helium is difficult to synthesise because we can not replicate the conditions inside the sun in a controlled way. Other ways we make Helium are by a thermonuclear explosion.
Helium is extremely common in the lunar regolith so moon mining would give us a virtually endless supply
Helium is extremely common in the lunar regolith so moon mining would give us a virtually endless supply
Noble gases don’t form molecules with other elements in Earth normal conditions. So you can’t gather it from breaking a molecule through a chemical reaction. You have to catch them as it is in the air.
But unlike other noble gases, helium is lighter than air so it slowly goes up and up and leaves the atmosphere.
It’s unpractical so you need to rely on sealed underground pockets of air. Which is typically how you also gather natural gas so we get helium as a byproduct for natural gas exploitation.
But helium is in a unique spot of useful, not that demanded (compared to hydrocarbures), hard to catch, hard to store (it will leak out of a sealed steel container). While the heavier hydrocarbures are expensive. So often the companies don’t even bother with helium and let it escape.
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