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What’s the third most common element? (Synopsis) [Starts With A Bang]
“When it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images.” –Niels Bohr
Shortly after the Big Bang, the first nuclear fusion reactions occurred in the Universe, filling it with hydrogen, helium, and little else. Billions of years later, huge numbers of stars have lived and died, creating copious amounts of heavy elements, running the full gamut of the periodic table.
Image credit: Theodore Gray, via http://theodoregray.com/periodictable/Posters/index.posters.html.
After all this time, hydrogen is still the most abundant element, followed by helium, although the gap is closer now than it was to start. But who’s third? You might think it’s carbon, because three heliums fuse into one carbon, but there’s one element that has it beat!
Image credit: Nicolle Rager Fuller of the NSF.
Come find out which one — and why — on Starts With A Bang on Medium.
Source: http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/2015/06/10/whats-the-third-most-common-element-synopsis/
