Stars are the nuclear engines of the universe, and are responsible for the synthesis of the vast majority of the chemical elements in what we know today as the periodic table of elements.
Modern cosmology maintains that the universe was created in a Big Bang approximately 13.8 billion years ago. During the creation event, the elements Hydrogen and Helium were created as the first forms of condensed matter, along with traces of the element Lithium. As the universe cooled and expanded, local clouds of these gasses began to condense under the influence of gravity. These clouds eventually collapsed to form stars, igniting nuclear fusion in their cores. This nuclear fusion is responsible for the light and heat that we see from our own star, the Sun.
The process of nuclear fusion converts the light elements Hydrogen and Helium from the Big Bang into heavier elements such as Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, Phosphorus, and the other elements that we now know are the basis for the development of life on Earth as we know it.
As a star begins to run out of Hydrogen fuel near the end of its life, the build-up of heavy elements within the star, and slowing of the fusion process ultimately causes the collapse of the star under the force of gravity. At this point things get very interesting. Depending on the size and mass of the star, the end of its life can occur in several different ways. Smaller stars like our Sun create beautiful nebulas around the burned out core of the star, which becomes a White Dwarf. Larger stars undergo more violent collapses, ending in supernova events that leave behind either a neutron star, or a black hole, or may even obliterate the star completely. These violent destructive ends to the lives of these stars spread all of the elements of the periodic table across the universe, seeding the formation of other stars and planets.
It’s now believed that the nebula that led to the creation of our solar system is made up of the remnants of many, many stars that lived their lives and then died, spreading their chemical elements into space. This process created for us a planet that’s rich in diversity and capable of sustaining life.
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