1. Formation of Elements and Stars
Beyond the Big Bang
Formation of Elements and Stars

2. The Early Seconds
Just after the big bang, the universe was expanding at an incredible rate
At this time it was incredibly hot with huge amounts of energy
As it expanded it began to cool, and simple elements like Hydrogen, Helium and Lithium began to form
These are known as “light” elements because they have a small atomic mass

3. What elements are we made of?

4. Expansion Continues
Once elements began to form, gravity kicked in and the expansion slowed down
Gravity also caused light elements to collect and form clouds of dust which create …

5. Stars!
The purpose of this PowerPoint is to aid the teacher’s discussion on stars, Doppler Effect, and Big Bang. It covers Standard 1, parts of Objective 1 & 2 of the Utah Core curriculum. Let’s begin.

7. So Who’s Right? Pumba is right-- a star is a mass of burning gas
Stars contain HUGE amounts of Hydrogen, helium and other elements
These elements are being used as fuel to keep the star burning

8. Big Bang and the Elements
Light elements formed in the Big Bang
Heavy elements form in the cores of stars
This happens because of nuclear fusion

9. Birth of a star A nebula is a HUGE cloud of gas and dust in space
Gravity causes this gas and dust to collapse into tighter and tighter spaces
As the particles of gas and dust get closer together, they become hotter
Once they get hot enough, nuclear fusion begins, and a star is born

10. Birth of a Star
Nebulas
Since Pumbaa was right, “Big balls of gas burning millions of miles away,” let begin with the life cycle of stars. This page shows from left to right: the Eagle Nebula, Orion Nebula, and Crab Nebula. Explain what they are.

11. Stellar Energy: Fusion
Fusion – the fusing of two atomic nuclei
Normally, one nucleus (+) of an atom will repel another
This is because like charges repel each other (+) (+)
In stars, atoms get hot enough, and move fast enough to overcome this
They collide and combine or fuse into bigger ones
This is called nuclear fusion or nucleosynthesis
Elements formed through fusion are called “heavy” elements because they have larger atomic mass than the light elements
These next slides will jump into processes that happen with stars, i.e. the reaction of lighter elements to heavy elements. (Standard 1 Objective 2bcd.) I would have the students know and understand the definitions and difference of fusion and fission. I put up the periodic table of elements to point out the different elements that can be fused and the elements that can break down. Assess your students to see if a review of proton, neutron, electron needs to take place.

12. Images to help show fusion. The slide on the left is hydrogen to helium. The other slide help illustrate that other heavy elements are produce and this is where all of our elements come from…stars! Ask your students their favorite movie star or celebrity. Ask if they would like to be a star, then explain they are made star material.
The image on the top right is helium to beryllium then to carbon. Bottom right is carbon to Neon.

13. Left image is carbon to magnesium and carbon/helium to oxygen
Left image is carbon to magnesium and carbon/helium to oxygen. Top right is Silicon to Nickel and the bottom right shows the decay of nickel to iron, the most stable element unable to fuse heavier (until the powerful explosion of a supernova which creates much heavier elements, e.g. uranium.)

14. Size Comparisons
Just for comprehension, let’s compare sizes beginning with something familiar: Earth, Venus, Mars, Mercury, and Pluto.

15. I think you can figure this one out.

16. Solar system comparison

17. Our sun compared to Sirius, the brightest star in the sky and in the constellation Canis Major (the Big Dog), Pollux in Gemini the Twins, and Arcturus in Bootes (buh-oat-ease).

18. The previous stars compared with Rigel (Blue Super Giant) in Orion, Aldebaran (Red Giant) in Taurus the Bull, Betelgeuse (Red Super Giant) in Orion, and Antares(Red Super Giant) in Scorpio.

19. Image of Betelgeuse in Orion located at the top left with lines around it. Compared to the orbit of Earth and Jupiter. Rigel from the last image is at the bottom right. Orion nebula is at the bottom middle in the middle of the trapezoid.

20. Image of an average white dwarf compared with the size of Earth
Image of an average white dwarf compared with the size of Earth. It has about the same mass as the sun but since fusion is not taking place there is no inward pressure pushing out to count act gravity. Thus the incredible density. The temperature is around hundreds of thousands of Kelvins, but since there is no fusion, it will slowly burn out to a black dwarf. Even the earliest white dwarfs have temps of 1000 K, and no black dwarfs yet discovered.

21. Image of a Neutron Star compared to the city of Manhattan
Image of a Neutron Star compared to the city of Manhattan. Their mass is about 1.4 – 2.0 times that of our sun. A teaspoon would range anywhere from 100 million tons to a billion. Another comparison of the mass of a neutron star would be to cram all of humanity in to the space of a sugar cube. Ouch! Some can be called Pulsars if their magnetic pole is facing towards Earth on it’s spin.

22. Just a Ziggy comic to keep the students interested
Just a Ziggy comic to keep the students interested. Good way to review star sizes.

23. Life Cycle
This image show a basic life cycle of average and massive size stars. You could have the students copy this in their science notebooks. This is probably the extent that students need to know for the core. Core Standard 1 Objective 2b.

24. Star Life Span
I really liked this illustrated graph of star mass vs. time they exist. You can see how smaller mass stars “live” longer. It is hard to read so I will try to reiterated the text.
Protostar -> Blue Supergiant -> Black hole Supershell
Protostar -> Blue Supergiant -> Supernova -> Black hole
Protostar -> Blue Supergiant -> Red Giant w/? -> Blue Supergiant -> Supernova w/neutron star -> Neutron Star Stellar Nursery
Protostar -> Solar Type Star -> Red Giant -> Planetary Nebula -> White Dwarf
Protostar -> Red Dwarf -> Red Dwarf -> White Dwarf
Protostar -> Brown Dwarf -> Brown Dwarf

25. Supernova Process
This shows the different levels at which different elements form during the end of the stars life. These stars have to have enough mass to have this occur.
Click on the image to go to a website that shows and explains how these different levels occur in succession.

26. Star Temperature
This image is the Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagram. No need to go into terrible detail but intended to use it to show star temperature with it’s correlating color. Red < 3000 K, Yellow < 6000 K, etc. Show students where our sun is.

27. Nebular Theory – How the solar system was formed

30. What evidence do we have of the nebular theory?
All planets in our solar system are on the same plane
All planets orbit in the same direction
Planets rotate perpendicular to the plane of the solar system
Observations of protoplanetary disks or proplyds in space