Braeden – we had a question a bit like this about gold. But I like the answer so much I’ll say again.
The earth is all about chemistry. Everything in your life is governed by chemistry – that means that the atoms in the things you eat, touch, breathe – they stay the same. They combine in different ways to give molecules, but the ATOMS esentially live forever. They don’t change into other atoms.
There are some exceptions – things that are radioactive. These things, like uranium, can split apart and form smaller atoms. But that’s quite rare on the earth.
The big exception – the sun. The sun is a nuclear thing. In the sun elements are combining to give elements – that’s nuclear fusion. We call that “nucleosynthesis” – atoms being made. And atoms that are big being made from the combination of atoms that are small.
OK. So we only see nucleosynthesis in stars.
Take a second.
Think….
Holy cow. That means that all the atoms of copper we have around us came from… stars.
What… That means that all the atoms we know about on the earth came from other stars that formed, lived, and exploded, shooting matter across the galaxy which re-formed into our sun and the earth.
Yes. That’s true. At the start of the universe we only had hydrogen and helium. All the heavy elements came from stars that exploded. That includes all the atoms in your body. You’re made of stardust.
Braeden – we had a question a bit like this about gold. But I like the answer so much I’ll say again.
The earth is all about chemistry. Everything in your life is governed by chemistry – that means that the atoms in the things you eat, touch, breathe – they stay the same. They combine in different ways to give molecules, but the ATOMS esentially live forever. They don’t change into other atoms.
There are some exceptions – things that are radioactive. These things, like uranium, can split apart and form smaller atoms. But that’s quite rare on the earth.
The big exception – the sun. The sun is a nuclear thing. In the sun elements are combining to give elements – that’s nuclear fusion. We call that “nucleosynthesis” – atoms being made. And atoms that are big being made from the combination of atoms that are small.
OK. So we only see nucleosynthesis in stars.
Take a second.
Think….
Holy cow. That means that all the atoms of copper we have around us came from… stars.
What… That means that all the atoms we know about on the earth came from other stars that formed, lived, and exploded, shooting matter across the galaxy which re-formed into our sun and the earth.
Yes. That’s true. At the start of the universe we only had hydrogen and helium. All the heavy elements came from stars that exploded. That includes all the atoms in your body. You’re made of stardust.
That, to me, is the most amazing thing.
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