Astronomers used computers to study the evolution of stars located in the disk of our Milky Way galaxy versus stars located in Omega Centauri, a globular star cluster outside the Milky Way’s disk. By contrasting copper evolution in Omega Centauri stars versus Milky Way stars, they determined that massive stars are the major copper producers.
It’s been commonly known for decades that the ordinary elements around us here on Earth arose in stars. But many mysteries remain.
For example, astronomers have felt unsure about the exact process that caused stars to produce the element copper. They’ve debated whether copper originates in massive stars or in a type of supernova called a type 1a supernova.
In 2007, astronomers Donatella Romano and Francesca Matteucci used observations of copper and iron abundances in stars of different ages to pinpoint the stars that made copper.
These astronomers now believe that most copper on Earth was forged in very massive stars. They believe copper came to be after these stars expanded to become supergiant stars. These supergiant stars later exploded as supernovae, catapulting the newly minted copper into space. Four and a half billion years ago, Earth inherited some of this copper.
It’s thought that gold and silver came to be in massive stars, but only as the stars exploded. In other words, while the copper in pennies and copper pipes arose during the lives of massive stars, the gold and silver in your jewelry were forged during star deaths.
Our thanks today to Research Corporation, America’s first foundation for science advancement.
I just can’t help smiling, reading stories like this. Everything that we are (with the possible exceptions of hydrogen and helium) came from the stars. I’m guessing that this means that life wasn’t possible until at least the second generation and maybe the third generation of stars came to be. If I’m not mistaken, the earliest stars came from pure hydrogen and helium, and seeded the next generation with heavier elements, that in turn seeded the third generation with additional elements.
Science (right or wrong) aside, it’s just a beautiful thought that we were born in the stars.
Ray
I agree Ray. It makes an irreligious person like me feel connected.
Ray’s comment made me smile as much as the original article. It is after all an amazing world and universe we live in and we continue to seek its origins.
Doesn’t copper add to the smoothness of our skins? Beauty must therefore come from the heavens, and wealth for that matter! Lucky stars!
The ancient Greeks associated copper with Aphrodite, goddess of love…a celestial idea.
What great comments on this radio script on copper’s origin! Thank you all!
What a wonderful thing the ‘earth’ is. Now if four and a half billion years ago the earth inherited/received ‘some’ of the copper, where did the rest of the copper go? What might have attracted it to the earth? Why is it only found in certain specific locations like Southern Africa and Papua New Guinea? Might it be due to the Equatorial ‘pull’?
That bothers me somewhat. The first gen of stars were hydrogen and helium. Where did those elements originate from. The second generation produced heavier elements…again where from? is it possible to make other elements out of elements? Can we do it here on earth?
Bernhard, hydrogen and helium are thought to have formed in the Big Bang. The original stars would have been all hydrogen and helium. The other elements are thought to have formed inside stars, via the process of thermonuclear fusion. This is the process that makes stars shine. In other words, inside a star made mostly of hydrogen, very simple hydrogen atoms in the core of the star fuse together to become slightly more complex helium atoms. In this process some energy is released … that’s the energy of our sun and others stars.
Inside stars, heavier and heavier elements are built up, with a corresponding energy release, over the lifetime of the stars. Some of these stars explode, releasing their heavy elements to space. Those heavier elements are then available to be incorporated into subsequent generations of stars. Our sun, for example, must be part of the subsequent generation because astronomers can tell (from analysis of its light) that it contains elements heavier than hydrogen and helium.
This radio script is about the formation of copper. Astronomers know that stars made copper, just as stars made the other heavy elements. They were just arguing about the details …
All the best,
Deborah
The very first stars—-made of pure hydrogen, helium, and a little bit of lithium—-are thought to have been extremely massive. Massive stars live only a few million years, then explode as supernovae. Thus, these pure hydrogen-helium stars don’t exist anymore, so astronomers can’t observe them. Every star ever studied—-even the ancient stars in the Galaxy’s halo—-have at least a small amount of heavy elements.
Yes, Bernhard, you can make one element from another (it’s called transmutation) and yes, we can and do do it here on earth. It’s done in nuclear reactors and in nuclear bombs. As early as 1938 (or maybe ’39 or ’40), Otto Hahn, a German scientist, noticed that when he bombarded uranium with neutrons, he got barium as part of the product. In 1901, Frederick Soddy and Ernest Rutherford observed natural transmutation occurring as a result of radioactive decay, such as helium being produced by the decay of radium. Gold from lead, however, has turned out to be impractical.
Charlie
if u actuly take time to read about minerals its really fasinating stuff
Yes, it really is! Thanks Nicki.