Cosmos:-possible worlds "A tale of two atoms"
The kingdom of matter stores it treasures on my many levels. Until recently, we thought there was only one. We had no idea there were others.
When we strike a match, a chemical reaction liberates energy stored in the molecules. Old chemical bonds break and new ones are forged. Now, the adjacent molecules begin to move faster and the temperature increases. Soon, the process
becomes self-propagated, a kind of chain reaction. The energy represented by
a flame has been locked, perhaps for many years, in chemical bonds between atoms.
Mediated by the electrons that revolved around their core. When we make a fire,
we release this hidden chemical energy. But there is a deeper level of matter that
houses another kind of energy. Inside the heart of the atom, its nucleus. This hidden treasure was forged billions of years ago in distant stellar furnaces. Long before Earth was formed. It's what powers the stars. Wresting this knowledge from nature
is a cosmic rite of passage. The beings of any possible world clever enough to travel
this deep into nature's labyrinth better take care. The secret of starlight is nothing to fool with. Like fire, it can bring a civilization to life and it can burn it to the ground.
What is an atom? What are they made of? How are they joined together?
How could something as small as an atom contain so much power? Where do atoms come from?
The same place we do. When we seek the origin of atoms, we are searching for our own beginnings. This quest takes us to the depths of space and time.
Long ago, before there was an Earth, there was a wisp of cold thin gas.
It was made of the simplest atoms. And they were gravitation-ally attracted to one another. So, the cloud grew. The atoms contained small, but heavy particles
in their nuclei. The hydrogen had protons, the helium had neutrons as well. They both had a skittering veil of electrons in orbit around them.
The atoms in the interior of the cloud moved ever faster as gravity pulled them ever closer together. Until the whole thing collapsed in on itself. This collapse raised the temperature so high, that the cloud became a natural fusion reactor. In other words, a star.
Atoms operating according to the laws of physics met and fused in the
unbroken darkness. And then there was light. In this froth of elementary particles, the nucleus of one of the atoms, a helium atom, was formed. After billions of years,
the star is now elderly. Having converted all of its available hydrogen fuel to helium.
Now that it's time for the star to die, it resumes the turning inward of its infancy. It joined with two others to become one of our heroes, a carbon atom.
That's what in the hearts of stars. Soon, our carbon atom will tumble out of this
red giant star into the interstellar ocean of space.
We've tinted this atom blue so you can find it in the vastness. Meanwhile, in another part of the galaxy. Similar processes were unfolding as stars were born and died. The other atom of our tale was formed in the heart of this dying star. In the catastrophic process of going supernova, 226 protons and neutrons
became fused to a carbon atom.
