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    How Elements in The Universe Are Formed

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    Mary Joy Llosa Redulla
    The light elements like hydrogen, helium, and lithium were formed during the Big Bang through nuclear fusion at extremely high temperatures and densities. Heavy elements were later produced through nuclear fusion inside stars, where densities and temperatures were sufficient to fuse lighter elements into heavier ones through processes like the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle and the triple alpha process. Elements heavier than iron could not be produced by fusion and were instead formed through neutron capture during supernovae explosions of massive stars.

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    How Elements in The Universe Are Formed

    Uploaded by

    Mary Joy Llosa Redulla
    1K views19 pages
    The light elements like hydrogen, helium, and lithium were formed during the Big Bang through nuclear fusion at extremely high temperatures and densities. Heavy elements were later produced through nuclear fusion inside stars, where densities and temperatures were sufficient to fuse lighter elements into heavier ones through processes like the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle and the triple alpha process. Elements heavier than iron could not be produced by fusion and were instead formed through neutron capture during supernovae explosions of massive stars.

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    How Elements in the Universe are formed

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    The light elements like hydrogen, helium, and lithium were formed during the Big Bang through nuclear fusion at extremely high temperatures and densities. Heavy elements were later produced through nuclear fusion inside stars, where densities and temperatures were sufficient to fuse lighter elements into heavier ones through processes like the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle and the triple alpha process. Elements heavier than iron could not be produced by fusion and were instead formed through neutron capture during supernovae explosions of massive stars.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    1K views19 pages

    How Elements in The Universe Are Formed

    Uploaded by

    Mary Joy Llosa Redulla
    The light elements like hydrogen, helium, and lithium were formed during the Big Bang through nuclear fusion at extremely high temperatures and densities. Heavy elements were later produced through nuclear fusion inside stars, where densities and temperatures were sufficient to fuse lighter elements into heavier ones through processes like the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle and the triple alpha process. Elements heavier than iron could not be produced by fusion and were instead formed through neutron capture during supernovae explosions of massive stars.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    of 19

    How the Elements

    Found in the
    Universe Were
    Formed
    Formation of Light
    and Heavy
    Elements
    The Origin of Light and Heavy Elements

    • Big Bang or Primordial Nucleosynthesis - the


    origin of the “light” elements
    • Stellar Nucleosynthesis - the origin and
    production of the “heavy” elements
    LIGHT ELEMENTS: these elements were
    present during the initial formation of the
    universe.
    Nucleosynthesis is the process that
    creates new atomic nucleus from
    preexisting nucleons, which is proton
    neutrons.
    The energy and temperature of the
    universe are extremely high to cause the
    neutrons and protons to combine and
    form certain species of atomic nuclei in a
    process called nuclear fusion.
    NUCLEAR FUSION

    PROTONS NEUTRONS
    Through nuclear fusion, the light
    elements - H, He, and small amounts of Li
    and Be were formed.
    The isotopes produced during the big
    bang nucleosynthesis were H-1, H-2, H-3,
    H-4, L-7.
    An isotope is a form of an element
    that has the same atomic number of
    the original element but with different
    atomic mass or mass number.
    ISOTOPE
    Origin of Heavier Elements

    Heavy elements were formed only billions


    of years after the formation of stars.
    The density inside a star is great enough
    to sustain fusion for extended time periods
    required to synthesize heavy elements.
    Stars are hot and dense enough to burn
    hydrogen-1 (1H) to helium-4 (4He).
    The formation of heavy elements by
    fusion of lighter nuclei in the interior of
    stars is called “stellar nucleosynthesis”.
    There are many nuclear synthetic
    pathways or nuclear fusions to produce
    heavy elements:
    • Carbon-Nitrogen-oxygen cycle
    • Proton-proton fusion
    • Triple alpha process
    Layers near core of
    stars have very high
    temperatures enough
    to nucleosynthesize
    heavy elements such
    as silicon and iron.
    Elements heavier than Iron

    Elements heavier than iron cannot be


    formed through fusion as tremendous
    amounts of energy are needed for the
    reaction to occur.
    Heavy elements are formed in a
    supernova, a massive explosion of a star.
    Supernova is the explosive death of a star.
    In supernova, neutron capture reaction takes
    place, leading to formation of heavy elements.
    In a neutron capture reaction, heavy elements
    are created by addition of more neutrons to
    existing nuclei instead of fusion of light nuclei.
    Adding neutrons to a nucleus doesn’t
    change an element. Rather, a more massive
    isotope of the same element is produced.
    Elements higher than iron requires
    tremendous amount of energy to be formed.
    Thus, they were produced from a neutron
    capture reaction in a supernova.

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