by 5 people |
A Truly Mindblowing Theory!
The Beginnings of The Universe
In the very beginning of the universe (well actually shortly after) the only element in existence was hydrogen. Don't ask me how hydrogen was formed - that bit is beyond me! Those of you familiar with the Periodic Table will know that hydrogen is the simplest of elements - one proton, one neutron (usually) and one electron.These atoms of hydrogen collected together, attracted by their mutual gravity to form hydrogen clouds. As the clouds grew the gravitational pull increased and more hydrogen atoms were attracted. These clouds became enormous and progressively more dense. Eventually the clouds became so dense due to gravitational forces that the ball of gas erupted into a nuclear reaction. And so stars were born.
Within stars the continual nuclear fusion reaction created from the simple building blocks of hydrogen, the more complex elements.
The Death of a Star
The smaller and more moderate size stars (such as our sun) never get much beyond making helium - the next most simple element after hydrogen. However, the bigger stars succeed as it gets older in making more complex and heavier elements, in particular iron. But this is the star's undoing - by creating these heavy elements the gravitational forces holding the star together fall into imbalance. The star becomes so heavy that it implodes, and then explodes into the uncontrolled nuclear explosion of a supernova. In this violent nuclear reaction the heaviest and most complex elements are formed. 
Shockwave from a supernova
Dispersion of Atoms
So, there you have it. All matter in the universe was created by stars. That includes all living things, even us - our bones, skin and the blood that pumps through our veins is composed of atoms that were originally made within distant stars.
Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything"
My favorite non text-book about science for non scientists.
A Short History of Nearly Everything
From primordial nothingness to this very moment, A Short History of Nearly Everything reports what happened and how humans figured it out. To accomplish this daunting literary task, Bill Bryson uses hundreds of sources, from popular science books to interviews with luminaries in various fields. His aim is to help people like him, who rejected stale school textbooks and dry explanations, to appreciate how we have used science to understand the smallest particles and the unimaginably vast expanses of space. With his distinctive prose style and wit, Bryson succeeds admirably. Though A Short History clocks in at a daunting 500-plus pages and covers the same material as every science book before it, it reads something like a particularly detailed novel (albeit without a plot). Each longish chapter is devoted to a topic like the age of our planet or how cells work, and these chapters are grouped into larger sections such as "The Size of the Earth" and "Life Itself." Bryson chats with experts like Richard Fortey (author of Life and Trilobite) and these interviews are charming. But it's when Bryson dives into some of science's best and most embarrassing fights--Cope vs. Marsh, Conway Morris vs. Gould--that he finds literary gold. --Therese Littleton
Amazon Price: $9.90 (as of 12/30/2009) 
Neil Degrasse Tyson - The Elements: Forged in Stars
Neil Degrasse Tyson The Elements: Forged in Stars
http://www.myspace.com/acorvettes All stars live by fusing hydrogen into helium. In the first step of the process, two hydrogen atoms fuse to form deuterium. In the next step, another hydrogen atom fuses with the deuterium, creating a rare isotope of helium that has two protons and one neutron in its nucleus. In the third step, two of the rare helium atoms fuse to create a single normal helium atom and two hydrogen atoms. The fusion pathway described above requires six hydrogen atoms to create one helium atom -- however, there are two hydrogen atoms left over at the end of the process. The net result is that it takes four hydrogen atoms to make one helium atom. The energy that fuels a star is a result of the difference in mass between the original four hydrogen atoms and the resulting helium atom. Following Einstein's mass-energy relationship, E=mc2, the missing mass is converted to energy
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Some books from Amazon about this subject.
Nightwatch: A Practical Guide to Viewing the Universe
Amazon Price: (as of 12/30/2009)
History of astronomy
Amazon Price: $8.64 (as of 12/30/2009)
Astronomy 2010 (Calendar)
Amazon Price: $6.99 (as of 12/30/2009)
A quick trip through the universe!!
Did you know.....
If 2 trains were travelling in opposite directions at 30 mph then the relative speed would be 60mph. BUT if you you were sitting in a train travelling at the speed of light and another one passed you in the opposite direction also travelling at the speed of light, then the relative speed would be...the speed of light (NOT twice the speed of light as you would expect)!!!
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Reader Feedback
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- Margo_Arrowsmith Margo_Arrowsmith Oct 8, 2008 @ 5:58 am
- Great pictures
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- Noadi Noadi Aug 22, 2008 @ 6:02 pm
- Carl Sagan the astronomer and author once said said that "We are made of star stuff". Great lens, 5 stars and a blessing.
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- TheInfamous7 TheInfamous7 Aug 14, 2008 @ 7:06 pm
- Beautiful Pictures!! I love things like this!..controversial theories and different takes on things.. :-)
Maybe a little more info..some big gorgeous polaroids of a galaxy far away..and you'll have yourself a beautiful Top Notch Lens!!
4Stars n a Fav from me!!..ill come back for the 5th when you've pimped this wicked page out! ;-)
by Rumpleteazer
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