How heavy elements like gold, silver and other elements came from?
In the event of the big bang (the beginning of our
universe), only hydrogen, Helium and little bit of lithium has formed. Rest of
the major elements like carbon in our life, nitrogen in the atmosphere, oxygen
for blood and breathing, calcium in our bones are formed in cores of the stars,
baked and cooked in extreme temperatures and pressures and elements like iron
will form and stars explode later, these
elements will get scattered with enriched guts across the galaxy enabling the
life as we know it.
If a star is say the size of our sun, then it will become a
white dwarf. If a star is more than 1.4 to 3 times the mass of our sun, then
gravity is so strong that electrons and protons will escape and only neutrons
will exist which we know the densest matter other than black holes.
One teaspoon of neutron
star weighs more than a Mount Everest. Those stars size will be 20 km
radius but weighs more than our sun.
If those neutron stars collide with each other, they explode
in one of the brightest firework known as kilo
nova. Those neutron stars collide and explode and the pressure built in is
so much that heavy elements as gold is formed.
We also got conclusive evidence when scientists detected
gravitational waves of two colliding neutron stars on August 17 2017 by LIGO.
This explosion occurred in NGC 4993 Galaxy aged 11 billion years. It is located
from us at about 130 million light years away. 130 million years ago, dinosaurs
are roaming here and there and no chance of domination for mammals on earth. However,
in 2017, when light from that explosion reached earth, we were able to detect
through gravity waves and through telescopes. Kudos to humans.
So next time if you catch on some gold, remember that it is
formed in the collision of two neutron stars, (one of the most violent event in
the universe) and that dust clumped together and stored in a planet known as
earth.
Thank you universe.
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