Where Your Elements Came From

[freeradical]

Is this correct? I always thought that the heaviest (as in proton count) element made through normal fusion in stars was iron, and that everything heavier was made in Type II supernovae (except the man made stuff that lasts for a fraction of a microsecond).


http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160125.html

[space-time]

"You are star material"

[Ombligo]

and nothing more than 5000 years old... :RollingEyesSmiley5:

[rz]

Huh. I thought my Elements came from Adobe...

[space-time]

Mine came from Amazon with a mail-in-rebate. I think it was version 8. Have not used it in ages.

Edit: I need to learn to type faster on iPhone.

[vitus]

freeradical wrote:
Is this correct? I always thought that the heaviest (as in proton count) element made through normal fusion in stars was iron, and that everything heavier was made in Type II supernovae (except the man made stuff that lasts for a fraction of a microsecond).

Iron is the limit of nuclear synthesis by means of slamming two lighter nuclei together since formation of heavier elements is endothermic, i.e. the binding energy per nucleon is less.

Formation of heavier elements can be accomplished either within stars by means of the s-process (slow neutron capture) or in the aftermath of a supernova explosion.

The man made heavier stuff can have appreciable half lives much longer than microseconds. e.g. 243Am at 7370 years.

[NewtonMP2100]

....where is earth, water, air, and fire......?!?!?!?!

[Paul F.]

I think it's fair to say that Plutonium should be shown as half man-made, and half natural... since it just BARELY exists in trace amounts in nature.

[cbelt3]

A friend of my wife's said "You are made of stars". I responded "Yes, and dinosaur poop as well."

[Don C]

I am glad the there are people who understand this stuff!

And to think that for half of one semester I considered a career in chemistry (a subsequent low grade in calculus put a stop to that).