The chemical composition of the Universe is constantly changing

Stars present in the Universe, whichórich are in the billions, still exploding and disappearing to be born again. An outline of how theób elements form in stars, were described in the paper, whichóry appeared in the pages of the journal „Science”.

– The universe has undergone some very interesting changes, in whichórych periodic table – the total number of elementsóin the Universe – has changed a lot,” said Jennifer Johnson, professor of astronomy at Ohio State University. – By 100 millionóin the years after the Big Bang there was nothing oprócz hydrogen, helium and lithium, and then we began to get carbon, oxygen and other really important elements. We are currently living in a time of filling up the periodic table with – added.

The periodic table has helped people understand the elements that exist in the Universe since the 1860s. It was then that Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev recognized that certain elements behave in a similar wayób and arranged them in the form of a diagram – the periodic table.

But the entire periodic table can be called stardust. Scientists have known this for a long time. Most of the elementsów on the Mendeleev table, from the lightest hydrogen to the heavier elementsów, such as lorens, was formed in the stars. The periodic table is constantly expanding as new elements are discoveredów, but the basics of Mendeleev’s reasoning about atomic mass and blockóin the structural Universe continue to prove themselves.

Nucleosynthesis, or the process of creating new elementsów, began with the Big Bang, about 13.7 billion years ago. The lightest elements in the Universe, hydrogenór and helium, formed as a result of the Big Bang. But the heavier elements – virtually every other element on the periodic table – are largely the product of the life and death of stars.

Celebrities with a lot of weight, someóre of them located in the constellation Orion, about 1,300 light-years from Earth, form elements much faster than low-mass stars. These stars connect the watersór and helium into carbon, and then turn carbon into magnesium, sód and neon. Massive stars end their lives by exploding as supernovae, releasing into space róThe different elements – from oxygen to silicon to selenium.

Photo. Jennifer Johnson/ Ohio State University

Smaller stars – the kind about the size of our Sun – combine hydrogen in their nucleiór and helium. Helium then combined with carbon. When such a star dies, it transforms into a white dwarf. White dwarfs synthesize other elements when they merge and explode. An exploding white dwarf can eject calcium or iron into space.

Neutron stars, on the other hand, can form rhodium or xenon. And because, like humans, stars live and die in rótional time scales – a róDifferent elements are formed at róThe composition of the elements at different stages of their livesóin the Universe’s constantly changing.

– When we think of all the elements in the Universe, it’s worth considering how many stars gave their lives to make the elements. It is not only massive stars that explode as supernovae, but also stars like our Sun – all this gives a very large number of stars – emphasized Johnson.