• Question: is the world and everything on it made up of stars?

    Asked by vorn20 to Adam, Joanna, Louise S, Louise W, Marcus on 16 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Joanna Giles

      Joanna Giles answered on 16 Nov 2012:

      Great question!

      The world, the universe and everything (including stars!) are made up of atoms. Everything you see is called “matter” and matter is made up of atoms – all the different atoms you see in the periodic table (and probably more that haven’t been discovered yet). Atoms are bound together to make chemicals (like sugars) and chemicals bind together to make GENES (DNA), sugars, proteins and fats. These then bind together to make cells, and cells bind together to make tissues and organs and then whole organisms.

      Scientists know what atoms are made of – electrons and protons and neutrons. But what the real big question is – is what is this made up of?? It is called the Higgs Boson – it has a name – but noone really knows much about it yet! It’s a very hot topic in physics!

      So, in conclusion the world is made up of atoms, and physicists are working hard trying to work out exactly what atoms are made up of!

    • Photo: Adam Paige

      Adam Paige answered on 19 Nov 2012:

      There is a great quote about us all being stardust. This comes from the big bang theory which shows that stars formed, ran out of fuel and exploded. Stars are made of hydrogen and helium, but in hot stars they can form other elements. If I recall the solar physcis correctly, all elements up to iron (element 26) can be formed by fusing together the lighter elements in the centre of a star.

      When the star runs out of fuel it collapses. If it was big enough, the collapse will cause a big supernova explosion. The power of this explosion is able to fuse heavier elements together creating elements up to uranium (element 92). These are scattered throughout space as the star explodes. Eventually they clump together by gravity forming planets (like the earth) and things on those planets (like us).

      So in that sense, yes we are all stardust.

      The elements after uranium in the periodic table appear not to be naturally formed, and have only been produced in laboratories in fusion experiments.

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