The Origin of the Elements
http://www.einstein-online.info/en/images/spotlights/BBNI/pn_to_he3.gif
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Outline
• The true basics of life
• The age of the universe
• What elements do we need?
• The origin of hydrogen and helium
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What is Required for Life?
• Carbon?
• Liquid water?
• Rocky planets?
Since we don’t know of other life yet, we
have to be cautious.
What is absolutely necessary?
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Is Carbon Required?
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Special Properties of Carbon
• Four available bonds per atom
• Very high boiling point (4827 C)
• Bonds almost equally strong with carbon
and with other elements (e.g., O, H)
• Different forms: diamond, graphite,
buckyballs. Diamond is hardest substance
• Which of these is important for life?
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Possible Carbon Alternatives?
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http://facstaff.gpc.edu/~pgore/PhysicalScience/periodic-table.gif
Possible Carbon Alternatives?
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http://facstaff.gpc.edu/~pgore/PhysicalScience/periodic-table.gif
Example: Silicon-Based?
• Maybe
• Lots of sand on Earth,
though, and yet no
life based on silicon
• In future, might be
artificial Si-based life
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Is Water Required?
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Special Properties of Water
• “Universal solvent”; many materials
dissolve but are not destroyed in water
• Can exist as solid, liquid, or gas in Earth
conditions
• Ice is less dense than water, so floats
• Water has high surface tension
• Which of these are important?
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Survival of Desiccation
• Many creatures can survive without water
• However, none that we know can grow and
reproduce without water
• Could methane (CH4) or ammonia (NH3) work?
Bdelloid
rotifer
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Is a Rocky Planet Necessary?
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Is a Rocky Planet Necessary?
• Surface, liquids seem
nice for life
• But could life emerge
on a star? In
interstellar space? On
gas giant? Elsewhere?
• What do you think?
Life on a neutron star???
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Heavy Elements Needed?
• Do we need elements beyond hydrogen and
helium?
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Heavy Elements Needed?
• Carbon seems pretty important. For life on
Earth, also oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur
• If silicon etc. substitute for carbon, those
are still heavy
• If methane, ammonia, or whatever
substitute for water, those still require
carbon or nitrogen.
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A Long Time!
• On Earth, took 3 Gyr
to go from life to
multicellular life
Short, fast, average???
• We do know that big
changes require
millions of years here
• Reasonable to expect
elsewhere
http://athene.as.arizona.edu/~lclose/teaching/a202/life_timeline.gif
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Speedup or Slowdown of Life?
• Suppose Earth had fewer radioactive
elements, or more protection from UV
Fewer mutations
• Would life have progressed faster (not as
many mistakes) or slower (not as many
prospects for innovation)?
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Complex Chemistry
• All Earth life has H,
C, N, O, P, S
Is this critical?
• Don’t know, but if we
are limited to H, He,
complex molecules
can’t form
• Assume need atoms
http://www.daviddarling.info/images/glycine.jpg
heavier than He
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A Non-Uniform Universe
• Completely uniform
means no complexity
• Need some structure
to distinguish parts
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Movie by Ben Moore
The Age of Earth and the Universe
• Claim: billions of years
• But how do we know?
Oldest human ~100 yr
Civilization ~10,000 yr
• In general, how can we
measure things far
outside our realm of
experience?
http://auxtbcr.info/Articles/Age%20of%20Earth.JPG
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Inference Outside Experience
• Have model for how things behave
• Model extensively tested in many
circumstances, giving correct answer
• Therefore, believe answers in realms we
don’t experience directly
But in such cases we need multiple checks
to our answers
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Radioactive Decay, Part 1
• Atoms made of
electrons and nuclei
(protons, neutrons).
• Type of element
depends only on
proton number
• Some nuclei decay
http://lhs.lps.org/staff/sputnam/chem_notes/alpha.gif
eventually into other
nuclei: unstable
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Radioactive Decay, Part 2
• Decay is statistical:
can’t predict in advance
• Concept of half-life:
time needed for half of
nuclei to decay
• Half-life is robust
against temp, press, etc.
• Thus, fraction left actshttp://www.visionlearning.com/library/modules/mid59/Image/VLObject-784-021205011203.jpg
as great clock!
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What About Initial Abundance?
• Don’t know initial abundance; big problem?
• No! Isochron dating. Parent, daughter, non-
radiogenic daughter. Straight line self-checks
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Example: Carbon-14
• Normal carbon: C-12
• C-14 decays to N-14
5730 yr half-life
Balance for live things
Decreases after death
• Can check for
historical dates
• But what about over
longer time scales?
http://www.thetartan.org/system/asset/image/1823/small/mummyfin.jpg
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Dendrochronology
• Tree ring dating!
• Oldest individual trees
(bristlecone pine) can
live 5,000 yr
• But tree rings can be
overlapped, date to
9,000 yr
• Excellent calibration
with radiocarbon http://www.ltrr.arizona.edu/lorim/xdate.gif
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Longer Decays: E.g., Uranium
• Uranium decays to thorium
• Half-life 4.5 billion years
• Well-matched to age of Earth
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http://sol.sci.uop.edu/~jfalward/physics17/chapter14/uraniumthoriumalpha.jpg
Results of Radioactive Dating
• Solar System is 4.55
Gyr old
• Extremely consistent,
many samples
• Low uncertainty
• Universe must be at
least this old
• What other methods Chondrite, 4.55 Gyr old
can we use? http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2108/2201855875_b8a61c75d8.jpg?v=0
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Stellar Evolution
• We only see
snapshots of star
lives, but understand
them well
Small things live long http://www.aetheoraem.com/StellarEvolutionJPG.JPG
• Cluster of stars Globular
Formed at same time
How big is biggest? cluster
Use to find age M80
• Oldest: 11-13 Gyr
http://www.astrographics.com/GalleryPrints/Display/GP0046.jpg
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Cooling of White Dwarfs
• WD: size of Earth,
mass of Sun
Endpoint of some stars
• No energy source, so
they just cool forever
• Simple objects:
measure temp to find
age
• Result: some >12 Gyr
http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/images/wd_cooling.gif
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Background Radiation
• Universe became
transparent after
expanding
• Radiation from them
has informative bumps
• Tells us that the
universe is 13.7 Gyr old Microwave photo of sky from
• Note: consistent with NASA’s WMAP satellite
other estimates
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Background Radiation, Part 2
• We learn a lot more
from this radiation
• Overall content of the
universe
• Geometry of the
universe
• Initial smoothness of Microwave photo of sky from
the universe NASA’s WMAP satellite
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How Quickly Could Life Develop?
• A thousand years after Big Bang?
• A million?
• A billion?
Basically, enough time was needed for
molecules to form.
When did this happen?
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Is Hydrogen Enough?
Only possibilities:
• H can form molecules
with itself: H2
• However, longer
chains are unstable http://www.kwugirl.com/cyberspace/atom.jpg
• From comp sci
perspective, not
enough information!
• Needs other atoms
http://www.hydro.com.au/handson/students/hydrogen/images/h2.gif
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How About Helium?
• Even worse!
• Helium already fills
both slots in inner
electron shell http://aspire.cosmic-ray.org/labs/star_life/images/helium.jpg
• It is the least
interactive of all
elements
• Nothing doing!
http://awsmposters.com.au/catalog/images/pirates%20keep%20out.jpg
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Lithium, Beryllium, Boron?
• To be open-minded,
maybe these work
• But the fraction of
mass in these atoms is
tiny
All <10-9 of hydrogen
• Look for others
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Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen?
• Finally!
• These are common and
have very flexible
chemistry (especially
carbon)
• We probably need them
• Have they existed since
the beginning of the
universe? http://www.chemistrydaily.com/chemistry/upload/9/9c/Benz1.png
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Formation of H, He
• No!
• Early universe was
too hot for nuclei
• Cooled down, and
some H came together
to form He
• But not enough time
for much of anything
else
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/Big_Bang_nucleosynthesis.svg/424px-Big_Bang_nucleosynthesis.svg.p ng
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Heavier Elements?
• No evidence of C, N, O until several
hundred million years after Big Bang
• How might these be produced?
• Also, what about phosphorus and sulfur.
Are these essential as well?
• What about iron or other trace elements in
our bodies?
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Summary
• Universe is about 13.7 Gyr old
Plenty of time for life, in principle
• Need complex chemistry
H and He not enough!
• Early universe, however, formed only H, He
• Where did the rest of the elements originate?
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