neutron

The First Nucleosynthesis

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One minute after the Big Bang, all the protons, neutrons, and electrons that would ever exist had been produced.

There were no atomic nuclei, though. No atoms. No materials as you and I know it–like wood, metal, or soil. Just a soup of subatomic particles and radiation.

The existing protons and neutrons could try to accrete together into an atomic nucleus, but they wouldn’t last long. High-energy photons–particles or “packets” of light–would quickly break them up.

But that was about to change…

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The Universe’s First Moments

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Imagine a time before galaxies existed, before the first stars had been born, before the most basic building blocks of matter–atoms–had formed.

This was mere moments after the Big Bang.

No one understands how matter and energy behave under the extreme conditions of the Big Bang itself. We can’t tell the story of the universe from exactly zero. But we can rewind the clock all the way back to the universe’s first one-millionth of a second.

So, what was the universe like back then?

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The Proton-Proton Chain

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wind and water energy.jpg

Take a wild guess: how much energy do you think the sun generates?

Think about it. It definitely generates enough energy to power a world.

Humans depend on the photosynthesis of plants, which converts sunlight into energy. And that’s not all. Without energy from the sun, our atmosphere would behave very differently, and so would our oceans.

Everything that moves on Planet Earth does so because it has energy. And a lot of that energy comes from the sun. It doesn’t even stop there—obviously, the sun has plenty of energy to spare, if the recent influx of solar power means anything.

The sun is incredibly powerful. And it’s powerful enough to keep generating that kind of massive energy supply for billions of years.

So where does it get all its energy?

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The Battery of the Sun

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soap bubbles.jpg

Does this image look familiar?

It should—these are soap bubbles.

Okay, now you’re probably going to ask me how soap bubbles have anything to do with the battery of the sun.

Well…you might be surprised to know that soap bubbles actually work as models of stars.

How?

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How Atoms Work

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atom photo.jpg

Have you ever seen something like this?

I’m going to venture a wild guess and say you haven’t, since scientists have only recently been able to take this kind of image. I learned about it in my biology class this semester, and the professor said that it was a landmark achievement.

You’re looking at an atom.

Yes, that’s right. You’re looking at a single, microscopic building block of matter.

Let me give you an idea of just how small this is. Millions of the smallest atom in the universe can fit lined across the diameter of a single pinhead.

But I’ll ask you another question. If I showed you an image like the one below, would you immediately think, “atom”?

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Types of Atoms

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PeriodicTable.png

Does this look familiar?

It might, or it might not. If it does, you might recognize it as the periodic table of the elements—more often known as simply the “periodic table.” It’s an ingenious way to organize elements that has worked for scientists for quite some time.

To fully appreciate the ingenuity of the periodic table, I’d have to take you through a few chemistry lessons. Never fear, I have every intention of doing so—later. For now, though, I just want to address enough of the world of atoms to talk about stellar spectra.

That just means the spectrums we get from stars, by the way. (Spectra is plural for spectrum.) And that means…well…we’ll talk about it later. Let’s talk about the different types of atoms first.

Atoms are the building blocks of the universe. Which means there must be different types. But what are they?

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The Building Blocks of the Universe

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atomic_line_spectra.png

“The Building Blocks of the Universe.” When you put it that way, atoms sound less like a topic specifically for a chemistry class and more like something astronomers might discuss.

They really are. I’ve got a fantastic reason to include atoms under astronomy, and its name is stellar spectra.

We’ve encountered stellar spectra before in these astronomy posts. When I wrote about the spectrograph, an instrument astronomers use to study data, I talked about spectral lines. I also promised we’d come back to elaborate on that later.

We’re not actually going to talk about the spectrograph in this post. I’m saving that for another time. For now, I’m going to cover atoms in a little more detail.

That way, we’ll have a better understanding of how they interact with light later on—and that will help us understand the spectrograph.

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