Abstract
Hydrogen and helium are the two most abundant elements in the Universe. As a matter of fact, the entire cosmic inventory of hydrogen and helium make up over 98 % of all known matter in the Universe. The remaining 2 % amounts to every other element combined. Despite the fact that our Earth is a rocky planet and contains an abundance of additional elements like oxygen, silicon, and iron, for example, it is not representative of the entire Universe. Our planet Earth, in the grandest of grand schemes, is nothing more than a speck of cosmic dust revolving around a medium sized star. It is not until we take the Universe as a whole until we can understand just how much hydrogen and helium exists out there.
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Notes
- 1.
At very high speeds, when a proton has a head-on collision with another proton, they become a single nuclei because the strong nuclear force (the force that binds nuclei together) overpowers the electromagnetic repulsion between the two positively charged nuclei.
- 2.
Deuteron is an isotope of hydrogen that has one proton, one neutron, and one electron.
- 3.
A neutrino (Latin for “little neutral one”) is a particle that has no mass or charge and moves virtually undetected through matter. We are constantly bombarded by neutrinos produced by the Sun but they pass through the Earth (and us) as though it was not even there. They are very difficult to detect and can only be found in deeply buried neutron detectors.
- 4.
Recall that a positron is the antimatter opposite of an electron. Immediately after a positron is emitted, it will interact with an electron (which are extremely abundant) and quickly annihilate in a burst of pure energy (gamma-ray photons). So, energy is released in this first phase of the P–P Chain albeit indirectly via the product of this first stage.
- 5.
Hydrogen burning will still occur in the outer core of a Red Giant star.
- 6.
In the carbon stage, two events occur. At extremely high temperatures (~600 million K) and pressures, carbon (12C) will fuse with another carbon nucleus to create magnesium. This process is known as carbon burning. Carbon can also fuse with helium (4He) to create oxygen (16O) and this process is called Helium Capture. Helium capture is far more common because it requires lower temperatures (~200 million K) than carbon burning.
- 7.
Oxygen (16O) can fuse into another oxygen nuclei to form sulfur (32S) at the extremely high temperature of about 1 billion K. The more common oxygen reaction, however, is also via Helium Capture where oxygen fuses with helium to become neon (20Ne) which occur at lower temperatures.
Further Reading
Arnett, D.: Supernovae and Nucleosynthesis—an Investigation of the History of Matter, From the Big Bang to the Present. Princeton University Press, New Jersey (1996)
Bodanis, D.: E = mc2, A Biography of the World’s Most Famous Equation. Berkley Publishing Group, New York (2000)
Burbidge, E.M.: Synthesis of the elements in stars. Rev. Mod. Phys. 29(4), 547–650 (1957)
Chaisson, E., McMillan, S.: Astronomy Today, 5th edn. Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey (2005)
Close, F.: Antimatter. Oxford University Press, Oxford (2010)
Gribbin, J.: Stardust, Supernovae and Life—the Cosmic Connection. Yale University Press (Yale Nota Bene), Connecticut (2000)
Lang, K.: The Life and Death of Stars. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2013)
Singh, S.: Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe. Harper Perennial, New York (2005)
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“Bo” Sears, W.M. (2015). Where Does Helium Come from?. In: Helium. SpringerBriefs in Earth Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15123-6_2
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