2 years, 2 months ago
Why weren't things besides hydrogen and helium created during the big bang?
If the big bang was so energetic that it created the whole universe, why didn't it create heavier elements besides hydrogen and helium?
Separate topics with commas, or by pressing return. Use the delete or backspace key to edit or remove existing topics.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$1 Answer
Actually, the Big Bang did not create hydrogen and helium. Hydrogen nuclei (protons) condensed out of quarks and gluons, which themselves were created from the high density energy created in the Big Bang.
Helium is formed from hydrogen through nuclear fusion in stars. Heavier elements also are formed in nuclear fusion, but because of their higher complexity (more protons and neutrons), those processes are less probable, and there is less of them.
Iron tends to have relatively high frequency compared to many lower elements due to its relatively high nuclear stability, such that where many lower nuclei tend to fragment in nuclear interactions (e.g. beta decays changing neutrons to protons, which may cause a nucleus to split) iron nuclei tend to stick around better.
Helium is formed from hydrogen through nuclear fusion in stars. Heavier elements also are formed in nuclear fusion, but because of their higher complexity (more protons and neutrons), those processes are less probable, and there is less of them.
Iron tends to have relatively high frequency compared to many lower elements due to its relatively high nuclear stability, such that where many lower nuclei tend to fragment in nuclear interactions (e.g. beta decays changing neutrons to protons, which may cause a nucleus to split) iron nuclei tend to stick around better.
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
This was an extremely good answer. I really appreciate it. Here’s my interpretation of what you just said. The precipitating event eventually formed quarks, gluons, and some other particles. The event was too energetic to allow the creation of atoms because at the energies right after the big bang, random particles and anti-particles could form and blow up quickly. Nuclei had a low chance of forming because statistically protons neutrons meeting at the correct energy range was unlikely, plus all the crazy particle-antiparticle bombs going off all over the place would blow them up anyway. Once energies became low enough, nuclei could form stably, but at that point, energies were too low to form larger atoms.
Sort of, but not exact.
At the instant right after the big bang the energy density was so high that there was a quark-gluon plasma. As the energy density lowered (as a result of the expansion of the universe) there was no longer enough energy to prevent quarks and gluons from being contained (which is the effect causing us to see no free quarks or gluons these days except as near-instantaneous intermediate stages in huge collider experiments. Once that happened there were protons and neutrons.
After a while, things cooled down and clumped up enough to allow stars to form, at which point fusion began, and protons were fused into helium nuclei. After more time passed, more complex and less stable nuclear fusion results also occurred, in which heavier nuclei formed. Then, supernova explosions threw those out into the cosmos which eventually allowed carbon/oxygen life to form.