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jackrobinson9
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did the heavier elements come from different galaxys? I am a gcse student who is in a bit of a debate with my teacher :)
jackrobinson9 said:did the heavier elements come from different galaxys? I am a gcse student who is in a bit of a debate with my teacher :)
Why would you think this?phyzguy said:Given that the universe is extremely big and atoms are extremely small, some of every element in our galaxy came from Andromeda. Probably some of every element in your body came from Andromeda. What is your question exactly?
Chalnoth said:Why would you think this?
Why would you think this?
Naty1 said:Do we have reason to believe any supernova explosion remnants in Andromedia could not or would not likely have reached our galaxy??
Except for a relatively small number of relativistic particles, I really really doubt that any matter has reached us from Andromeda. Given the small number of such particles and the difficulty of capturing them, it seems very unlikely that there are any significant number on Earth.Naty1 said:I would have thought that a possibility [not the small atoms part] because Earth has been bombarded by stuff for millions and likely billions of years, and formed from gases floating around for many more billions, so it would seem something might have had time to travel here from Andromedia...
Do we have reason to believe any supernova explosion remnants in Andromedia could not or would not likely have reached our galaxy??
After reading somebdy found one of the RNA proteins in meteor debris, I'd not rule much of anything out!
The original post was asking about heavy elements. The number of those that escape the galaxy will be exponentially-damped, in addition to their low abundances.phyzguy said:My reasoning is as follows:
(1) Galaxies are filled with hot, ionized gas, with temperatures in the keV range, A proton with a temperature of 1 keV has an average velocity of about 400 km/sec.
(2) A galaxy like Andromeda has a mass on the order of 10^12 Msun. At a distance of 10 kpc, the escape velocity is about 900 km/sec. Further out, the escape velocity is lower.
(3) Therefore, the Maxwellian tail of the hot gas has enough velocity to escape the galaxy. This is similar to the Earth's atmosphere where the particles in the tail of the Maxwellian distribution evaporate over time.
(4) A particle moving at 900 km/sec will cross the 800 kpc separating the Milky Way from Andromeda in about 0.8 giga years. While this is a long time, the galaxies have been associated for much longer than this.
(5) In addition, we see a constant stream of cosmic rays arriving at the Earth, with energies as high as 10^21 eV. These particles are relativistic, hence traveling at basically the speed of light, so there is no doubt they will escape, and they will cross intergalactic distances much faster. These are known to consist of elements at least as high as iron. Some of them almost certainly come from other galaxies.
Therefore there should be a steady stream of atoms arriving from Andromeda, and other galaxies as well. I'm sure it is a tiny fraction of the atoms associated with the Milky Way, but it is still a huge number of atoms. For those of you who disagree, are you saying that none of the perhaps 10^68 baryons in the Milky Way came from Andromeda? Or do you disagree with the analysis above?
phyzguy said:Therefore there should be a steady stream of atoms arriving from Andromeda, and other galaxies as well. I'm sure it is a tiny fraction of the atoms associated with the Milky Way, but it is still a huge number of atoms.]
Probably some of every element in your body came from Andromeda.
For those of you who disagree, are you saying that none of the perhaps 10^68 baryons in the Milky Way came from Andromeda? Or do you disagree with the analysis above?
did the heavier elements come from different galaxys?
Your analysis was for protons. The question is about the heaviest elements, not protons. The tiny amount of uranium atoms in a hot interstellar gas cloud at a temperature of 107K have a mean velocity of 33 km/sec. This means that essentially none of the uranium atoms in the Earth came from Andromeda. Instead, they all came from supernovae that occurred within the Milky Way or in galaxies that subsequently merged into the Milky Way.phyzguy said:Therefore there should be a steady stream of atoms arriving from Andromeda, and other galaxies as well. I'm sure it is a tiny fraction of the atoms associated with the Milky Way, but it is still a huge number of atoms. For those of you who disagree, are you saying that none of the perhaps 10^68 baryons in the Milky Way came from Andromeda? Or do you disagree with the analysis above?
The heaviest elements in the universe, such as gold and platinum, are believed to have originated from the explosive deaths of massive stars, known as supernovae. These explosions release huge amounts of energy, which in turn creates the conditions necessary for the creation of heavier elements.
Yes, it is believed that the heaviest elements in our own galaxy, the Milky Way, were actually created in other galaxies. This is because supernovae explosions occur more frequently in younger galaxies, and these explosions are the main source of heavy elements.
Supernovae explosions release huge amounts of energy and material into space. This material, including the heavy elements, can then be scattered throughout the universe by various processes, such as galactic winds and collisions between galaxies.
While supernovae are the main source of heavy elements, they are not the only source. Neutron star mergers, when two dense neutron stars collide, can also produce heavy elements in the universe. This was recently confirmed by the detection of gravitational waves and electromagnetic radiation from a neutron star merger.
Scientists use various methods to determine the origin of elements in the universe. One way is to study the chemical composition of stars and galaxies, which can provide clues about the source of heavy elements. Additionally, observations of supernovae and neutron star mergers have provided evidence that these are the main sources of heavy elements in the universe.