Where do chemical elements come from?

Chemical elements that make up all living things, including the human body. They formed from processes in the universe and existed for billions of years.

Chemical elements formed in the universe

About 14 billion years ago, creating a universe consisting of only gas, no stars nor any planets. The gas component consists of the atom of the simplest elements, about 75% of which is hydrogen and the remainder is almost helium, without the elements of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, nor iron, silver or gold.

In some places there is a higher gas density. Because of the gravitational force, these places continuously suck in more gas, eventually creating a giant gas sphere that shrinks under its own gravity and heats up from within. The core of the sphere is so hot that it forms a nuclear fusion reaction. Hydrogen atoms react with each other to form helium and release energy strong enough to counteract the contraction of gravity. When the energy pushed out of the fusion reaction is equal to the gravity pulling all the gas inward, the equilibrium occurs. The result is a star formed.

The chemical elements in the universe are formed in the star core.(Source: NASA).

The fusion in the star's core not only produces helium but also carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and all other elements in the periodic table to iron. The star will collapse completely when the core runs out of fuel. This causes a powerful explosion, called. There are two things to note about how the supernova explosion creates elements. First, the explosion released so much energy that it produced a strong fusion, forming elements heavier than iron such as silver, gold and uranium. Second, all the elements that accumulate in star cores such as carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and iron as well as the elements formed in supernova explosions are pushed into interstellar space and mixed with existing gases. over there.

The above process is then repeated. The gas cloud now contains many elements besides hydrogen and helium. It began to have more dense areas, sucked in more matter and formed a new star. The sun was also born this way about 5 billion years ago, meaning it was developed from a cloud of gas that contained many elements created by supernova explosions since the universe began. The sun is made up of 71% hydrogen and 27% helium, the other 2% are other elements.

Elements on Earth

Planets are also formed from gas clouds in the universe. Small planets like Earth don't have enough gravity to retain much hydrogen or helium because they are both very light. They will gradually escape into space. So, even though heavier elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen, only account for 2% of the composition of the Earth's gas cloud, they are retained and are the main component of the Earth today.

Think about this, except for hydrogen and some helium gas, the ground under your feet, the air you are breathing and you, everything is made of atoms that form inside the star. When science began to study the problem in the first half of the 20th century, the famous American astronomer Harlow Shapley remarked: 'We are brothers of rocks, and relatives with hordes. clouds'.