A star is about to die, but before it does it will go out in the most spectacular fashion ever imagined. It goes Super Nova.
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Now and then I receive mail and I must confess I’ve always enjoyed receiving the questionnaires Russ our 360 friend sends me because it makes me dig into my own reservoirs of what I had learned throughout the years, where then I once more marvel at the wonders of our Universe. That seemingly random chaos like a puzzle strewn upon a tabletop until the puzzles come together to behold a marvellous painting by an exquisite artist. Our Universe and its activities within it.
As a rule I would reply in an e-mail but occasionally I do find myself wanting to share with all of you what I receive and so today I would like to share my response to Russ’s questionnaire here.
Russ’s comment in regards to my post the comet Encke A Spectacular View
Morning Wabbit, @@ Oh... there's the coffee :) I enjoyed this as always but got stuck on one thing;
"If cosmic dust did bring the ingredients of life to earth, a mystery remains. Where amidst the violence of the early earth did the fragile materials survive?"
The more intriguing mystery to me would be "Where did they come from???
Refills cup, OK off to catch up on Merlin :)
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When we think of our earth as from the beginning 4.5 billion years ago we imagine a serene earth lush with vegetation, animals roaming and blue skies. Well no, early earth was a violent one bombarded with asteroids and comets, the skies were not blue but tinged with a reddish hue because of the thick CO2 and Hydrochloride Sulphur in the atmosphere. It was a hellish place hence called the Era of Heavy Bombardment. Today’s microbiologists are extremely interested in earth’s early living conditions around 3.8 billion years and how microbes and bacteria survived this unforgiving early planet. And yet they do. Deep in the caves of New Mexico, a condition as it was in our primitive earth the extremophiles live happily in sulphuric acid and poisonous gases. Also deep into the earth 3klm deep.
Scientists have already established (as mentioned in my post about comet Encke) that the ingredients of life take a ride on asteroids and comets. We also know that earth was bombarded with comets and asteroids. And now to the question of “where” does it come from.
Super Nova
video by true masked wabbit
For this we need to look far into space. More specific on massive stars about to die. Imagine an onion with all its layers and apply this to a star ten times the mass of our sun. When this star dies it begins to shed some layers – carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, silicon, oxygen, iron (this is everything we are made of and everything our earth is made of) Fourty thousand tons of bits of comets and asteroids that impact the earth every year, this is mostly in forms of particles that are less than a millimetre in size. We breathe them, they’re in the food we eat - the fundamental ingredients of life and carbon is the star of our show. (Carbon is everywhere in space – what makes carbon special is what kind of bonds that it makes, both with itself and other elements. Carbon has the flexibility to form diverse types of compounds) – When carbon bonds with other elements such as hydrogen, oxygen and energy under the right circumstances equals amino acids, they are the essential blocks of protein and sugary substance for DNA of all living things. To further explain that comets carrying amino acids impacting the earth (or any planet with the right conditions) the simpler form of molecules of amino acids transformed into the compound called peptides. Peptides then linked together to form larger building blocks, proteins which make up all the cells within our body.
Those layers from that dying star are spewn at an incredible force into space. And when it begins to collapse in onto itself its final gift is a massive explosion such as a thousand H bombs going off at the same time or instant pure energy E=mc², with it a stellar star system is born. A nebula where new stars and new planets are born. (Our Crab Nebula holds enough water to replenish our ocean 25 times over.) Meaning – a swirling dust of varied elements with the heavier ones such as silicon and iron gathering together. But there is a lot of activity going on before a planet is formed. Rocky matter gets bumped around violently in some cases and some are bumped out of the nebula’s orbit and heading towards us as what we know of as a comet coming from the far reaches of space bearing gifts of life. Including even our own asteroid belt where at times one asteroid will bump into another one spinning it out of orbit and hurdling it towards our earth.
Amino acid and amino acid with protein
Molecular structure peptides
This is about the fastest and simplest way I can explain astrophysics, chemistry and biology in a short post. But not to worry if one’s head can’t get around it how life can come from non-living elements. Even geneticists are still scratching their heads how one gene communicates with another gene to build epigenetics one way coming from the female and a different way coming from a male gene. As complex as our own genetic code may be, plants are still more complex in their genetic code, we humans are merely as simple as a fish. Amazing huh?
Super Nova:
A supernova is associated with the death of a star about eight times as massive as the Sun or more. When such stars deplete their nuclear fuel, they no longer have the energy (in the form of radiation pressure outward) to support their mass. Their cores implode, forming either a neutron star (pulsar) or if there is enough mass, a black hole. The surface layers of the star blast outward, forming the colorful patterns typical of supernova remnants.
Pulsars
Schematic view of a pulsar. The sphere in the middle represents the neutron star, the curves indicate the magnetic field lines and the protruding cones represent the emission beams.
More on Asteroids and molecular findings
http://www.geocities.com/astronomy_with_tru20054340/asteroids.html
Huuuugs and wish you all a fantastic day and a safe weekend
Wabbit
