Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Physics, Astronomy & Cosmology => Topic started by: doughorrigan on 23/03/2021 18:30:21
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Our sun is a second or third generation star, a massive star that exploded many billions of years ago created the elements that make up our solar system.
It must have been many times the size of our sun in order to create the heavy elements such as Gold, Lead, Uranium.
According to the theories it went supernova after it had exhausted its supplies of hydrogen and helium resulting in an implosion that created the heavy elements then exploded outwards and the remants of that explosion created our solar system.
But if all the hydrogen was consumed then where did the hydrogen that makes up our sun come from?
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Our sun is a second or third generation star, a massive star that exploded many billions of years ago created the elements that make up our solar system.
It must have been many times the size of our sun in order to create the heavy elements such as Gold, Lead, Uranium.
According to the theories it went supernova after it had exhausted its supplies of hydrogen and helium resulting in an implosion that created the heavy elements then exploded outwards and the remants of that explosion created our solar system.
But if all the hydrogen was consumed then where did the hydrogen that makes up our sun come from?
Only a fraction of the heavy elements produced by that earlier star. Those elements were spread out into the galaxy to mix with the hydrogen already in the dust and gas cloud from which the Solar system. The shock wave which delivered those heavy elements, also precipitated the collapse of that cloud into the solar system.
In other words, while the Supernova seeded the solar system with heavier elements, it didn't provide all the material used to form it..
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Thank you
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I will also add that not all hydrogen nuclei (protons) are primordial. Free neutrons are produced as byproducts of by many fusion and fission processes, and these free neutrons decay to protons (and electrons and neutrinos) in a matter of minutes.
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Most of the hydrogen in the sun is not burned during its lifetime, similar to nuclear fuels. A stars death is just a reprocessing procedure as stars become loaded with other elements that inhibit nuclear fusion. Its all about the core.
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if all the hydrogen was consumed (during a star's lifetime) where did the hydrogen that makes up our sun come from?
A lot of hydrogen exists in intergalactic space, and rains down onto the galaxy, fueling new star formation.
But even during their lifetimes, stars produce a continuous wind from from their outer surface, carrying some of their hydrogen back into space. For the Sun, this is called the Solar Wind.
- When a star gets old, and turns into a red giant, and large amounts of the star's outer atmosphere drift off into space.
stars become loaded with other elements that inhibit nuclear fusion.
The Sun is too small to go past the Helium-burning phase of a red giant.
- But larger stars go through successive stages of burning larger and larger atoms (which require sucessively higher and higher temperatures, due to the larger electrostatic repulsion between larger nuclei)
- The limit is when the core is mostly iron and nickel. No energy is gained by fusing these nuclei - in fact it consumes energy to fuse iron nuclei, resulting in a catastrophic collapse into a black hole. During this process, some of the star's outer envelope is blown off into space, including nuclei up to nickel (and a little beyond).
(the Sun's parent star) must have been many times the size of our sun in order to create the heavy elements such as Gold, Lead, Uranium.
It is now thought that most of these heavy elements are not created in supernovas, but in neutron star mergers, which spray large amounts of neutron-rich material into space (before collapsing into a black hole).
See the periodic table, showing the expected sources of different elements:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_nucleosynthesis#Key_reactions
Our sun is a second or third generation star,
Ironically, stars like the Sun were the first type of star discovered. Stars like the Sun are called "Population I stars"
- A later discovery of stars with much lower concentrations of "metals" (elements heavier than helium) were called "Population II stars"
- It is assumed that there was an even earlier group of stars with almost no elements heavier than helium. This hypothetical group is called "Population III stars"
So in fact, astronomers named the stars in exactly the opposite order than you might expect.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_population
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Thank you
That is a Very Nice gesture of Appreciation from your End.
😊👍
Hardly any folks that ask Questions ever take the time out or have the Courtesy to say " Thanks " to other members who spent their time & energy into providing Answers & Explanations.
👎
(Note* - Sayin Thanks is certainly NOT a Compulsion, & perhaps it does Not encourage or discourage other members...but Why not be a lil courteous & kind when We can, Right!)
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Would like to show You another way of doing it...
Say for Example, I Liked & Appreciated the way doughorrigan was Courteous.
Hence i go above that specific response...
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Now...there is a " BLUE " colored
" Actions " box present...i Click on it...
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Yeps!
You guessed it Right!
I choose the very first option...
👍 Say Thanks 👍
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P.S. - Hope that Helped.
✌️😊