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Post by Mat's Mom on Jan 31, 2016 9:16:56 GMT -8
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Post by Common Atom(s) on Oct 14, 2016 18:56:09 GMT -8
Some recent research indicates that we may actually be largely made of stardust specifically from a collision of two neutron stars (not something listed in the chart in the original post). horizon-magazine.eu/article/gold-might-come-colliding-stars_en.htmlastronomynow.com/2015/12/09/gamma-ray-burst-seeded-solar-nebula-with-heavy-elements/The researchers in the above links claim that the amount of really heavy elements in our solar system is difficult to explain except through the decay of fragments from a collision of two neutron stars long before our solar system formed. In a way, neutron stars can be thought of as enormous atomic nuclei. Since it may take a finite time for in-falling protons to become neutrons (by finding an electron?), a neutron star's position on the periodic table is probably moving around all the time. However, it's quite interesting just to think that all life on Earth (and Earth itself along with the rest of the solar) may have descended from a couple of ancestral atomic nuclei. If life actually requires the collision of neutron stars to properly seed "billion year old carbon" with enough of the heavier elements to spark life, then the universe might turn out to be an extremely lonely place. What are we really fighting about again? |
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