The Theory of Nothing

How were metals created?

How were metals created?

This is a very fascinating question because without metals we would not exist. As you know, fusion is the engine that powers our sun and most other stars. Fusion is a nuclear process that smashes two hydrogen nuclei together to form a helium nucleus, a process that occurs at millions of degrees and creates photons that eventually provide light and heat to Earth. However, the sun does not make the elements above helium, at least nothing above carbon.

So, just how did the higher elements get created? The answer is in supernova explosions of large blue stars. Most of these stars create higher atomic weight elements in shells that surround the star’s core. Hydrogen plus hydrogen makes helium. Helium nuclei smash together to make carbon and carbon and helium combine to make oxygen and so forth. Each of these nuclear fusion processes occurs at higher temperatures, billions of degrees. Eventually we get up to the formation of Iron and that where the process stops. Iron is poison to the star’s core and nuclear fusion ceases, causing the star’s core to collapse and the entire star to implode, releasing an enormous amount of energy and heat, trillions of degrees. That’s called a supernova because this process of the star dying happens quickly in a brilliant flash of energy that can be seen across the universe. The light from a single supernova can outshine the entire galaxy that it resides in.

The reason for the star’s collapse is simple. Once the fusion furnace goes out, gravity causes the star to collapse in on its self. It no longer has the pressure of fusion to keep it safe from the force of gravity. The end result is a big Kaboom!

The secret to how the higher atomic weight elements are created is in the fact that a supernova creates an enormous heat and pressure that for a brief instant causes the fusion reactions to make things like gold, silver, lead, uranium, elements that are needed to form the Earth and harbor life. This brief fusion orgy is the reason that these elements are scarce.

What happens to the core of the star influences what happens to the debris from the supernova explosion.  Depending on size, the star’s core may end up as a neutron star, a pulsar, a magnestar or a black hole. The latter fate could end up eating the debris and spitting it out as a quasar. I’ll talk about those things later.

The debris from a supernova along with all of these higher atomic weight elements are scattered into a nebula, a gas and dust cloud that expands away from the dead star. Eventually, the gas and dust is compelled by gravitational forces or the pressure of another supernova explosion to begin condensing into a new star, which eventually causes the debris to rotate around it and form planets. This is how the Earth and us came to be. What it means is that we came from stardust and we will return to stardust--eventually.

Thanks for reading.