335
TIL ~62% of the atoms in a human body are Hydrogen, and are as old as the universe.
(en.wikipedia.org)
this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2024
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If you break down that far, isn't everything as old as the universe?
When fusion or fission occurs you get new atoms.
It's Hydrogen that's existed since the universe cooled enough for electrons and protons to make atoms. Seconds after the big bang.
That's most hydrogen.
It's never been fused into heavier elements just still sticking around and caught in the planetary part of the solar system rather than the sun itself. Or any previous suns.
There's some helium like that but most helium was formed inside suns later, and heavier elements all formed later in suns or supernovas.
Atoms didn't exist until 380,000 years after the big bang. Before that the universe was too dense for atoms to form and everything existed as a hot dense plasma where no electron could be captured by protons and neutrons. The protons that make up the nucleus of hydrogen did exist, it's just that everything was too energetic to become an atom yet.
But you don't get new protons and neurons that way right? Higher nucleei are just hydrogen nucleei that got too cozy with each other.
Don't forget neutron star collisions. Modern physics doesn't think there's enough energy in supernovae to create all the elements, so some must have come from neutron star collisions.
More like 380,000 years after the big bang you still needed everything to cool down and forces to separate and lots of other really cool stuff to happen before hydrogen could form.
I’m a biologist rather than a physicist, but I will take a swing at this.
Not really, although it depends on how you do your definitions. Most of the elements were formed by stars, which were themselves formed by the OG hydrogen, so hydrogen came first. So, first energy, then particles, then hydrogen, then stars and such, then oxygen and iron and all of those things.
I’m open to any corrections.
"All of the protons in the universe have been around since the beginning of the universe. Most of them haven't undergone nuclear fusion"
Isn't that good of a post title
Maybe not for you, but its much more interesting for me, as it gives more info than "if you think about it, old things are old"
Yes, Neil deGrasse Tyson, you are very jaded and knowledgeable. Now let the rest of us have fun.
As far as I'm aware, protons don't decay. If they formed at the beginning of the universe, they stick around until they get annihilated by anti-matter. But are we getting new protons after the universe formed? No idea.