Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to Comets and Consensus

Stellar Evolution And The Spread Of Elements

Iron, sulphur, silicon, and oxygen (the primary elements in planet cores both terrestrial and giant) did not exist when the universe formed. They were made by fusion reactions inside giant stars. The first generation of planets could not exist until the first generation of giant stars died in supernova explosions which spread these elements around and caused the formation of elements beyond iron in atomic number so planets can obvipusly be formed only from stellar death byproducts. Carbon, nitogen, and oxygen produced in second generation main sequence stars also get spread when these stars go through oscillations in their red giant phases. Sorry for student project source, but that was the most relevant I could find quickly. I used to have an online textbook linked for this stuff but the link has gone dead.

All these elements get spread during the death of stars after they go through their giant phases. These giant phases are likely to swallow some terrestrial planets in their system if they exist and render the rest lifeless. The mass blowing away from these explosions is immense compared to planetary masses so even if planetary mass gets recycles it is a small portion of the total. In addition planets have been found around neutron stars. It is not clear whether these were formed before or after the stars nova phase but it suggests that planets that are not swallowed may survive. Even if they are destroyed shear probability indicates that their fragments willl be a minor fraction of the left over debris. Add to that the low occurence of fossils in the Earth's crust and the small portion of Earth's mass that the crust makes up and it is extremely unlikely that anything formed from the leftovers of stellar and planetary death will contain a fossil from an extrasolar planet. It should also be noted that the higher elements get produced in stars with lives too short to produce advanced easily fossilizable life if it takes a slong as it did on Earth.

Regards,
Mark

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