4 ms·

As a side note, it's mind boggling that overwhelming majority (more than 98%) of the visible universe's mass are only from two most lightweight of chemical elem

As a side note, it's mind boggling that overwhelming majority (more than 98%) of the visible universe's mass are only from two most lightweight of chemical elements namely Hydrogen and Helium.

irjustin 11mo ago
> it's mind boggling that overwhelming majority is it though? I mean literally everything has to start there and the only way get to heavier elements is via stars and many-many iterations. it's not like heavier things popped into existence.... or did they...
- gizmo686 11mo ago
  There is a theory that primordial black holes formed in the very early universe. I'm not sure when this process would happen relative to the formation of atoms. But, if it actually happened, it would have been long before stars started forming.
- idiotsecant 11mo ago
  Yes, it's a little mind boggling because the typical human context is this rocky ball of what is ultimately a very uncommon distribution of heavy elements. It's a strange feeling to know that almost everything is utterly unlike the everyday human experience. If you turn down the uhm acksshuwlly a few notches I think parent post's point is quite obvious.
  - simonh 11mo ago
    https://xkcd.com/2640/ https://xkcd.com/2640/ The alt text is on point.
  - soVeryTired 11mo ago
    The average density of matter in the universe is one proton per five cubic meters or so. We're very much the outlier!
  - simpaticoder 11mo ago
    The uniqueness of our state is quite interesting, arguably profound. Sol exists in the so-called "Local Bubble" which is about 1/100 of the average density of the galaxy, probably caused by multiple supernova. It's possible, if not likely, that this has helped reduce impact events such that life has only reset ~6 times rather than hundreds, and probably contributed to the relative abundance of heavy elements in our solar system. Earth's biosphere is profoundly 'lucky' on several very disparate time-scales. And then there's the size of the moon...
codesnik 11mo ago
And earth contains so much of heavier elements.
- analog31 11mo ago
  As I learned it long ago in school, elements up to the mass of iron are formed by stellar fusion. That's the point where fusion is no longer exothermic. Any element on earth that is heavier than iron is the product of a supernova. So we live on a ball of supernova debris.
  - kadoban 11mo ago
    Most of what we live on, the vast majority, is iron or lighter. So it's more that we're sprinkled with supernova debris. But we are made out of stardust, so that's something.
    - adrian_b 11mo ago
      An interesting fact is that while almost all of the Solar System has started as gas, which has then condensed here into solid bodies that have then aggregated into planets, a small part of the original matter of the Solar System has consisted of solid dust particles that have come as such from the stellar explosions that have propelled them. So we can identify in meteorites or on the surface of other bodies not affected by weather, like the Moon or asteroids, small mineral grains that are true stardust, i.e. interstellar grains that have remained unchanged since long before the formation of the Earth and of the Solar System. We can identify such grains by their abnormal isotopic composition, in comparison with the matter of the Solar System. While many such interstellar grains should be just silicates, those are hard to extract from the rocks formed here, which are similar chemically. Because of that, the interstellar grains that are best known are those which come from stellar systems that chemically are unlike the Solar System. In most stellar systems, there is more oxygen than carbon and those stellar systems are like ours, with planets having iron cores covered by mantles and crusts made of silicates, covered then by a layer of ice. In the other kind of stellar systems, there is more carbon than oxygen and there the planets would be formed from minerals that are very rare on Earth, i.e. mainly from silicon carbide and various metallic carbides and also with great amounts of graphite and diamonds. So most of the interstellar grains (i.e. true stardust) that have been identified and studied are grains of silicon carbide, graphite, diamond or titanium carbide, which are easy to extract from the silicates formed in the Solar System.
omneity 11mo ago
Feels like most resources on the map aren’t mined yet.

As a side note, it's mind boggling that overwhelming majority (more than 98%) of the visible universe's mass are only from two most lightweight of chemical elements namely Hydrogen and Helium.

irjustin 11mo ago

> it's mind boggling that overwhelming majority is it though? I mean literally everything has to start there and the only way get to heavier elements is via stars and many-many iterations. it's not like heavier things popped into existence.... or did they...

gizmo686 11mo ago
There is a theory that primordial black holes formed in the very early universe. I'm not sure when this process would happen relative to the formation of atoms. But, if it actually happened, it would have been long before stars started forming.
idiotsecant 11mo ago
Yes, it's a little mind boggling because the typical human context is this rocky ball of what is ultimately a very uncommon distribution of heavy elements. It's a strange feeling to know that almost everything is utterly unlike the everyday human experience. If you turn down the uhm acksshuwlly a few notches I think parent post's point is quite obvious.
- simonh 11mo ago
  https://xkcd.com/2640/ https://xkcd.com/2640/ The alt text is on point.
- soVeryTired 11mo ago
  The average density of matter in the universe is one proton per five cubic meters or so. We're very much the outlier!
- simpaticoder 11mo ago
  The uniqueness of our state is quite interesting, arguably profound. Sol exists in the so-called "Local Bubble" which is about 1/100 of the average density of the galaxy, probably caused by multiple supernova. It's possible, if not likely, that this has helped reduce impact events such that life has only reset ~6 times rather than hundreds, and probably contributed to the relative abundance of heavy elements in our solar system. Earth's biosphere is profoundly 'lucky' on several very disparate time-scales. And then there's the size of the moon...

codesnik 11mo ago

And earth contains so much of heavier elements.

analog31 11mo ago
As I learned it long ago in school, elements up to the mass of iron are formed by stellar fusion. That's the point where fusion is no longer exothermic. Any element on earth that is heavier than iron is the product of a supernova. So we live on a ball of supernova debris.
- kadoban 11mo ago
  Most of what we live on, the vast majority, is iron or lighter. So it's more that we're sprinkled with supernova debris. But we are made out of stardust, so that's something.
  - adrian_b 11mo ago
    An interesting fact is that while almost all of the Solar System has started as gas, which has then condensed here into solid bodies that have then aggregated into planets, a small part of the original matter of the Solar System has consisted of solid dust particles that have come as such from the stellar explosions that have propelled them. So we can identify in meteorites or on the surface of other bodies not affected by weather, like the Moon or asteroids, small mineral grains that are true stardust, i.e. interstellar grains that have remained unchanged since long before the formation of the Earth and of the Solar System. We can identify such grains by their abnormal isotopic composition, in comparison with the matter of the Solar System. While many such interstellar grains should be just silicates, those are hard to extract from the rocks formed here, which are similar chemically. Because of that, the interstellar grains that are best known are those which come from stellar systems that chemically are unlike the Solar System. In most stellar systems, there is more oxygen than carbon and those stellar systems are like ours, with planets having iron cores covered by mantles and crusts made of silicates, covered then by a layer of ice. In the other kind of stellar systems, there is more carbon than oxygen and there the planets would be formed from minerals that are very rare on Earth, i.e. mainly from silicon carbide and various metallic carbides and also with great amounts of graphite and diamonds. So most of the interstellar grains (i.e. true stardust) that have been identified and studied are grains of silicon carbide, graphite, diamond or titanium carbide, which are easy to extract from the silicates formed in the Solar System.

omneity 11mo ago

Feels like most resources on the map aren’t mined yet.