Trending away creationism, 2 elements
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 8:12 pm
Trending away creationism, 2 elements
Mankind's understanding of the natural world has exploded since the first half of the 19th century. Since then, more data has flooded in from both cosmic realms and the nanoscopic realms. As our data and theories of the world expand, the trend is moving conspicuously away from creationism. The gaps in our knowledge, where the creative acts of a supernatural god could be inserted, grow ever smaller and ever more sparse.
Join me on a six-part series as we travel along and discuss the evidence that is most disastrous for creationist accounts of nature's origins.
Part two covers the synthesis of elements in the life cycle of stars.
All objects, substances, and living organisms are made up of molecules. These are further broken down into constituent atoms. The periodic table gives an exhaustive account of all stable atoms in the universe. Nuclear physics neatly explains the atomic number as the number of bound protons within the nucleus.
When it comes to the question as to the origin of these elements, astronomy again provides the answer. Stars fuse hydrogen nuclei into helium as a matter of course. When temperatures and pressures are even higher than those found in stars, helium can be fused into the "heavier" elements, such as carbon and xenon.
But how could such pressures and temperatures be obtained in the universe? The answer is that at the end of a star's life, all the hydrogen is being exhausted. The extremely hot remaining helium begins to collapse. At that point, pressure rises to unimaginable levels, and the star explodes as a rebound from the collapse. During the explosion, the heavier elements are fused. All elements of the periodic table up to iron are fused then. Elements that are "heavier" (those containing more protons), than iron will fuse in nuclear reactions that absorb energy, rather than release it. These heavier-than-iron elements are forged during the endlife explosion of giant stars with masses over 1000 times that of the sun. The remnant left over after those supernovas is a black hole.
The fused nucleons are blasted light years away from the star into space, where they form nebulas, and eventually cool into gas clouds. Billions of years later, these clouds can form rings around younger stars called accretion disks, Accretion disks evolve by gravity into stellar system bodies, such as asteroids, comets, and planets.
We know the origins of atoms. Look in the room around you. The substances making up all those objects were forged in the explosions of stars. Gravity brought them together into earth. Billions of years later, these substances were mined from the earth and manufactured into the walls, furniture, and tools around you.
Mankind's understanding of the natural world has exploded since the first half of the 19th century. Since then, more data has flooded in from both cosmic realms and the nanoscopic realms. As our data and theories of the world expand, the trend is moving conspicuously away from creationism. The gaps in our knowledge, where the creative acts of a supernatural god could be inserted, grow ever smaller and ever more sparse.
Join me on a six-part series as we travel along and discuss the evidence that is most disastrous for creationist accounts of nature's origins.
Part two covers the synthesis of elements in the life cycle of stars.
All objects, substances, and living organisms are made up of molecules. These are further broken down into constituent atoms. The periodic table gives an exhaustive account of all stable atoms in the universe. Nuclear physics neatly explains the atomic number as the number of bound protons within the nucleus.
When it comes to the question as to the origin of these elements, astronomy again provides the answer. Stars fuse hydrogen nuclei into helium as a matter of course. When temperatures and pressures are even higher than those found in stars, helium can be fused into the "heavier" elements, such as carbon and xenon.
But how could such pressures and temperatures be obtained in the universe? The answer is that at the end of a star's life, all the hydrogen is being exhausted. The extremely hot remaining helium begins to collapse. At that point, pressure rises to unimaginable levels, and the star explodes as a rebound from the collapse. During the explosion, the heavier elements are fused. All elements of the periodic table up to iron are fused then. Elements that are "heavier" (those containing more protons), than iron will fuse in nuclear reactions that absorb energy, rather than release it. These heavier-than-iron elements are forged during the endlife explosion of giant stars with masses over 1000 times that of the sun. The remnant left over after those supernovas is a black hole.
The fused nucleons are blasted light years away from the star into space, where they form nebulas, and eventually cool into gas clouds. Billions of years later, these clouds can form rings around younger stars called accretion disks, Accretion disks evolve by gravity into stellar system bodies, such as asteroids, comets, and planets.
We know the origins of atoms. Look in the room around you. The substances making up all those objects were forged in the explosions of stars. Gravity brought them together into earth. Billions of years later, these substances were mined from the earth and manufactured into the walls, furniture, and tools around you.