Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2016 January 25
Where Your Elements Came From
Image Credit: Cmglee (Own work) CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL, via Wikimedia Commons
Explanation: The hydrogen in your body, present in every molecule of water, came from the
Big Bang. There are no other
appreciable sources of
hydrogen in the universe. The
carbon in your body was made by
nuclear fusion in the interior of stars, as was the
oxygen. Much of the iron in your body was made during
supernovas of stars that occurred long ago and far away. The
gold in your jewelry was likely made from neutron stars during collisions that may have been visible as short-duration
gamma-ray bursts. Elements like phosphorus and copper are
present in our bodies in only small amounts but are
essential to the functioning of all known
life. The
featured periodic table is color coded to indicate
humanity's best guess as to the
nuclear origin of all known elements. The sites of
nuclear creation of some elements, such as
copper, are not really well known and are continuing topics of observational and computational research.
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