A couple of weeks ago this fascinating version of the periodic table of the elements was the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD). Most people have seen the periodic table of the elements, it is shown on the wall of most high school chemistry classrooms. But, what is totally fascinating to me about this version is it shows the origin of each element.
It has been a long process of several decades to understand the origin of the elements. In fact, we have not totally finished understanding the processes yet. But, we do know the story for most elements. All the hydrogen in the Universe was formed in the big bang. This is true for nearly all the helium too. A small amount of the 25% or so of helium in the Universe has been created within stars through the conversion of hydrogen into helium. But, not much has been created this way because most of that helium is further converted to carbon.
The only other element to be formed in the big bang is lithium. About 20% of the lithium in the Universe was formed in the big bang, the rest has been formed since,
Together, hydrogen and helium comprise 99% of the elements in the Universe by number (not by mass).
Where Your Elements Came From – from the NASA Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD) 24 October 2017.
I have decided to use this fascinating table as the basis for a series of blogs over the next few weeks to explain each of the 6 processes in these six boxes
The source of the diagram shown on the APOD site was this on Wikipedia, I believe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nucleosynthesis_periodic_table.svg
Thank you Bryn. It’s fascinating
Who’d have thought that the periodic table could become even more beautiful.
I was led to believe that Li, Be and B are destroyed by cosmic rays; they’re fissionable.
Another of my favourites: binding energy per nucleon
https://www.miniphysics.com/binding-energy-per-nucleon-and-nuclear.html
What I’ve seen before is the odd discussion of how some elements above Iron are made, but this comprehensive treatment of each element is a pleasant surprise. Thanks