Big Bang
by Simon Singh · 1 Jan 2004 · 492pp · 149,259 words
fact that the universe consists predominantly of small atoms rather than large atoms. The extent of this bias is highlighted by the following list of cosmic abundances according to the number of atoms. These values are based on current measurements, which are not far from the values estimated in the 1930s: Element
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common, and finally the heaviest atoms such as gold and platinum were rare indeed. Scientists began to wonder why there should be these extremes of cosmic abundance between the light and heavy elements. The supporters of the eternal universe model were unable to give a clear answer; their fallback position was that
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giant celestial bodies. And they used giant telescopes to look at very big galaxies that were very far away. But to tackle the problem of cosmic abundances, scientists would need new theories and new equipment to describe and probe the very, very small. Before embarking on this part of the Big Bang
Asteroid Mining 101: Wealth for the New Space Economy
by John Lewis · 22 Jul 2014 · 183pp · 54,731 words
) and coal, which are natural but not crystalline, are therefore not minerals. We shall survey the most abundant meteoritic minerals in the next section. The cosmic abundances of selected elements are given in Table IV.2. These abundances are appropriate for the Sun, the original raw material of the Solar System, and
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made more complicated by the existence of other, somewhat less abundant, elements and by fractionation between Fe and Si. The chief offender is sulfur, whose cosmic abundance is about 40% of the abundance of iron. At about 680 K (407oC) in a cosmic-composition gas, at a point where Fe oxidation to
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radiation shielding, drinking and cooking water, and water for personal hygiene. Carbon is an absolute necessity for all known forms of life; indeed, its high cosmic abundance and rich chemistry suggest it as the logical basis for all life in the Universe. Carbon is ubiquitous in meteorites, although its abundance is strikingly
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taenite particles with Co:Ni ratios greater than 1. One rare kamacite sample from the LL6 Jelica has a Co:Ni ratio of 2 (the cosmic abundance ratio is more like 0.05) with a Co content of 9.55%. We shall return to the topic of Co- and Ni- rich metals
Coming of Age in the Milky Way
by Timothy Ferris · 30 Jun 1988 · 661pp · 169,298 words
, too. But how? Happily, nature had provided a Rosetta stone against which Hoyle and his collaborators could test their ideas, in the form of the cosmic abundance curve. This was a plot of the weight of the various atoms—some twelve hundred species of nuclei, when the known isotopes were taken into
The End of Astronauts: Why Robots Are the Future of Exploration
by Donald Goldsmith and Martin Rees · 18 Apr 2022 · 192pp · 63,813 words
of single protons (nuclei of hydrogen, the most common element in the universe); others include the nuclei of helium (next in line in terms of cosmic abundance) and more massive nuclei, mainly of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and iron. Higher-energy particles tend to be rarer than lower-energy ones, a fortunate circumstance
Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier
by Neil Degrasse Tyson and Avis Lang · 27 Feb 2012 · 476pp · 118,381 words
, physicists demonstrated that the fuel source in the Sun was the thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen into helium. In the 1940s and 1950s astrophysicists deduced the cosmic abundance of elements by describing in detail the sequence of thermonuclear fusion that unfolds in the cores of high-mass stars that explode at the end
Exoplanets: Hidden Worlds and the Quest for Extraterrestrial Life
by Donald Goldsmith · 9 Sep 2018 · 265pp · 76,875 words
” includes all of these molecules and their compounds if they achieve solid form. Inside the snow line, astronomers expect that planets will form from the cosmically abundant elements silicon, oxygen, iron, and aluminum, with smaller amounts of calcium, magnesium, and sodium, whose compounds dominate terrestrial rocks. Beyond the snow line, mixtures made
Beyond: Our Future in Space
by Chris Impey · 12 Apr 2015 · 370pp · 97,138 words
, and it’s a major part of all terrestrial creatures—from 40 percent for beetles to 99 percent for jellyfish. Both carbon and water are cosmically abundant, so setting them as prerequisites for life isn’t very restrictive. Then there is energy. Humans are at the top of a food web reliant
Strange New Worlds: The Search for Alien Planets and Life Beyond Our Solar System
by Ray Jayawardhana · 3 Feb 2011 · 257pp · 66,480 words
arrogant, to think that we are the only technological civilization in the Galaxy, given 200 billion other suns, the apparent ubiquity of planets, and the cosmic abundance of life’s ingredients. But it’s one thing to guess at probabilities and quite another to have proof. However it arrives, the frst defnitive
Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
by Carl Sagan · 11 May 1998 · 272pp · 76,089 words
is brightest. Might the beings of some other planet see mainly at very different frequencies? This seems to me not at all likely. Virtually all cosmically abundant gases tend to be transparent in the visible and opaque at nearby frequencies. All but the coolest stars put out much, if not most, of
Diaspora
by Greg Egan · 1 Jan 1997 · 337pp · 93,245 words
Swift's atmosphere contained no ordinary hydrogen, no carbon- 12, no nitrogen- 14, no oxygen-16, no sulfur-32. Not a trace of the most cosmically abundant isotopes, though they were present in the normal proportions on Voltaire's nine other planets. On Swift, there was only deuterium, carbon-13, nitrogen-1