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Origin of Elements

The document discusses the origin of chemical elements in the universe. It describes three key cosmic stages: 1) Big Bang nucleosynthesis formed the lightest elements hydrogen, helium, and lithium. Nuclear reactions occurred as the universe rapidly expanded and cooled. 2) Stellar nucleosynthesis occurred within stars, fusing lighter elements into heavier ones up to iron through nuclear fusion. 3) Supernova nucleosynthesis formed elements heavier than iron. During a supernova explosion, extremely high temperatures and abundant neutrons allowed nuclear fusion to create these heavy elements.

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Joanna Ruth Sepro
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242 views

Origin of Elements

The document discusses the origin of chemical elements in the universe. It describes three key cosmic stages: 1) Big Bang nucleosynthesis formed the lightest elements hydrogen, helium, and lithium. Nuclear reactions occurred as the universe rapidly expanded and cooled. 2) Stellar nucleosynthesis occurred within stars, fusing lighter elements into heavier ones up to iron through nuclear fusion. 3) Supernova nucleosynthesis formed elements heavier than iron. During a supernova explosion, extremely high temperatures and abundant neutrons allowed nuclear fusion to create these heavy elements.

Uploaded by

Joanna Ruth Sepro
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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The Origin of

Elements
Lesson 1
Vocabulary
● Big Bang Theory: this is the currently accepted theory of the origin of the
universe which proposes that everything started from a singularity which in
time inflated—and continues to do so—until the world we know of today
started existing approximately 14 billion years ago.
● Stellar Nucleosynthesis: this is the birth of elements through nuclear fusion
that takes place within stars.
● Supernova: this is the explosion in the event of a death of a star.
● Neutron-Star Mergers: this is when stars merge to form a more massive star,
generating more energy than normal stars.
● Light Elements: these are elements from Hydrogen to Iron which form in less
massive stars.
● Heavy Elements: these are elements heavier than Iron which form from
massive stars, supernovae, or neutron-star mergers.
Chemical Elements are principal for the existence of life and the
abundance and diversity of our environment.

Elements are believed to have existed


billions of years ago when the so-called
“Big Bang” took place.
According to the Big Bang theory, the
universe was at one time confined to a
dense, hot, super massive ball.
The Composition of
01 the Universe
Composition of the Universe
• The universe is composed of 92 elements, beginning from the
lightest hydrogen to the heaviest uranium.
• Approximately, 73% of the mass of the universe is hydrogen,
while helium makes up about 25% and the other 2%.
• Elements heavier than uranium (transuranium elements) are
synthetic elements – made by scientists in the laboratory
• Low mass elements, hydrogen and helium, were formed in the
hot, dense conditions of the birth of the universe itself.
• Nuclear reactions can describe the birth, life, and death of the
stars.
The Nucleosynthesis Epoch
• Nucleosynthesis (nucleo, meaning
“nucleus”; synthesis, meaning “putting
together”)
• defined as the formation of elements by
combining the simple nuclei or atomic
particles by nuclear reaction with the
help of extremely hot temperature and
pressure
• Periodic table of elements is not a fixed
list of elements that we already know
of; one can say that the periodic table
of elements is a work in progress, as
more and more elements can still be
created.
3 COSMIC STAGES
STELLAR
NUCLEOSYNTHESIS
02 formed the elements
BIG BANG heavier than Be to Fe
NUCLEOSYNTHESIS
formed the light 01
elements SUPERNOVA
(H, He, and Li).
03 NUCLEOSYNTHESIS
formed the elements
heavier than Fe
Big Bang Theory
Explains how the elements were initially formed the different elements that
involved many nuclear reactions – fusion, fission, and radioactive decay
• Singularity – a point in space and/or a moment in time where the universe
was infinitely hot and dense
• Inflation – a theory of exponential expansion of space in the early universe..
• Nucleosynthesis – is the process that creates new atomic nuclei from pre-
existing nucleons, primarily protons and neutrons.
• Recombination – refers to the epoch at which charged electrons and protons
first became bound to form electrically neutral hydrogen atoms
• Annihilation – reaction in which a particle and its antiparticle collide and
disappear, releasing energy
• Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) – is electromagnetic radiation left over
from an early stage of the universe in Big Bang cosmology.
1. The universe may have begun as an infinitely hot and dense initial singularity, a point with all of
space, time, matter and energy. There is no space around the singularity.
2. Then it began to rapidly expand in a process called inflation. Space itself expanded faster than a
speed of light. In this still hot and dense mass of the universe, pairs of matter and antimatter
(quarks and antiquarks were formed from energy, but these cancelled each other back into energy
(annihilation).
3. The universe cooled down as it expanded. An excess of matter – electrons, protons and neutrons
and other particles came to be in a highly energetic state. Photons (light particles) are being
scattered everywhere. Protons and neutrons came together to form different types of nuclei
through the process called nucleosynthesis and nuclear fusion.
4. Later on, electrons started to bind to ionize protons and nuclei forming neutral atoms in a process
called recombination. The bound particles no longer scattered photons so light and energy moved
freely across the space. This period is called “dark ages”.
5. Gravity caused these atoms to collapse onto one another to form stars and galaxies and other
matter. This still happens until today. Space continue to expand at an accelerating rate.
The following succession of events took place
• The universe expanded rapidly and cooled in the process.
• Matter and energy decoupled and became separate entities.
• A period of rapid exponential expansion took place followed by the
formation of large numbers of quarks, electrons and other particles.
• When the temperature of the universe cooled to about a trillion
degrees, about one second after the Big Bang, the quarks were able to
combine to form nuclei of the simplest elements, hydrogen, helium, and
lithium.
• The formation of the nuclei of light elements after the Big Bang is
referred to as Big Bang nucleosynthesis or primordial nucleosynthesis.
I. Big Bang Nucleosynthesis
Important first reactions in big bang
nucleosynthesis are:
1. combination of proton and neutron
produces deuterium.
2. two deuterium produces Helium-3
3. combination of tritium and deuterium
produces Helium-4
• Protons and neutrons can fuse too form isotopes of hydrogen, such
as deuterium, through this nuclear reaction;

• If you recall, isotopes are atoms of the same element that differ in
the number of neutrons and, therefore, also differ in mass numbers.
• Also called nuclides, isotopes are different “versions” of an element.
In the first reaction, tritium was formed from the reaction of
deuterium which also came from the first ion (hydrogen) together
with one neutron.
As the reaction proceeded, deuterium reacted with a proton to
form the unstable helium, which is the second element.
Because elements should attain stability, the third
reaction took place: tritium reacted with proton to
produce the stable isotope of helium
The fourth reaction involved also the formation
of stable helium isotope through the reaction of
the unstable helium with one neutron.
The last nuclear reaction for the Big Bang took
place when stable helium reacted with tritium
to form lithium.
The Stellar
Nucleosynthesis
The stellar nucleosynthesis, the second
cosmological event in the Big Bang, was
about the fusion of particles to form
elements beryllium (Be-4) to iron (Fe-26)
II. Stellar Nucleosynthesis
Formation of other elements not greater than elements 26
(iron) took place in the center of the stars where the
temperature was about 15 million degree Celsius.

1. - the building bock of every element (except for


hydrogen)
• A star is a heavenly body that can exist for millions of years
and is the good source of lighter elements.
• At the last minutes of a star, the force of gravity will pull down
the other elements into the iron core because iron is very
stable and, therefore, will not undergo nuclear reaction. Yet
iron will push them back, making the core so massive to the
point that it cannot contain the force of gravity. In a few
seconds, the iron core collapses or explodes that will mark the
beginning of the supernova and the formation of the heavier
elements greater than iron.
SUPERNOVA
NUCLEOSYNTHESIS 03
Heavier elements greater than iron took place
in the process of supernova.
This cosmological process has two key characteristics:
1. Presence of an extreme temperature
2. Abundant source of neutrons

The temperature rose for about 6000x hotter than the


sun and abundant neutrons fused with others to form
elements 28 up to the heaviest element.
Thanks!
Any questions?

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