UniVerses

This famous Hubble image of the Eagle Nebula made by NASA scientists was called the Pillar of Creation, as it reflects an area where new stars are forming.

Forces

In vulcan’s forge combine two nuclei
to fuel the furnace we have named the sun.
Through plasma fusion‘s cosmic alchemy
two hydrogens become one helium.
Thence  all this earth’s atomic firmament
are ashes of another long dead star,
which, heated by sol’s photons radiant,
combine in structures biomolecular.
Whence living micro-organisms arose
then swarms of cells evolved intelligence.
Ephemeral in substance, heaven knows
yet science transcends our existence.
The streaming light‘s promethean gifts
that wax and wane as earth’s axis shifts.

Stars come in all sizes, but those about the size of our sun are the most common. Our sun is a huge droplet of plasma that formed when a giant cloud composed almost entirely of hydrogen ions gathered and condensed.

Inside the sun protons and neutrons fuse, producing helium ions and giving off energy in the form of neutrinos, light and heat.

The size and fate of a star is determined by the amount of hydrogen it was initially fueled with. Its size is a balance of the force of gravity, pulling its elements together against the outward force from the energy produced during fusion.

Our sun began with so much fuel it will take ten billion years before it will explode. Gradually the amount of helium will grow as the  hydrogen nuclei fuse. As the store of hydrogen depletes, the balance of forces that determine the sun's size will shift, and some day it will expand into a red giant, consuming its inner planets. At the center of the red giant the helium will gravitate towards the core and helium nuclei will start fusing, producing carbon and oxygen. Eventually the amount of energy produced will change the balance of forces yet again, and the red giant will collapse into a white dwarf, about the size of the earth.

Stars much larger than our sun "burn" much faster, exploding in about a billion years. When enough helium accumulates, it forms a core earlier in the life of a giant star, then helium fusion begins. Soon cores of carbon and  oxygen also form at the center, and, eventually, the star develops an iron core. In the end, the giant star collapses on itself and explodes as a supernova.

Heavy elements like iron, lead, and gold only appear in the universe when one of these giant stars explodes.

Since Earth is full of these heavy atoms, we and earth itself are made of star dust that became entrapped in the Sun’s gravitational web. This star's legacy is the substance that gave rise to life, and we are connected with another star from the early universe, all apart of the grand Design.

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