elements were made in the stars right?

[tommo123]

iron etc was made in stars bigger than ours right?

if we properly crack fusion and eventually create heat and pressures beyond our own sun, could we use it to create elements? could we then potentially create brand new never seen before elements that never existed in nature - if we made the equivalent of an uber star?

 

[VampyrByte]

I believe this has already been done to some extent.

Check Wikipedia, I think this is what you are talking about.

 

[tommo123]

cool, but wasn't that recreating something that exists (although in tiny tiny amounts?)

is there anyway to even guess at what kind of things we may make in the future though if we can recreate the conditions that stars create these elements?

 

[eLiu]

cool, but wasn't that recreating something that exists (although in tiny tiny amounts?)

is there anyway to even guess at what kind of things we may make in the future though if we can recreate the conditions that stars create these elements?

Uh, as the article says, only atomic numbers 1-94 are naturally occurring. The ones after that are synthetic, i.e., man-made & not occurring in nature. My understanding is that their properties aren't that well-understood b/c many of them exist for only a tiny tiny tiny fraction of a second before undergoing nuclear decay. But I think scientists have conjectured potential applications for a few of the longer-lived elements if we could create them in larger quantities? I bet the wiki articles on 95-11x will tell you.

 

[Sunny129]

the heaviest element a star the size of our sun will create via thermonuclear fusion is probably silicon (based on its mass). the largest stars will create no element heavier than iron during their lifetimes. those stars large enough to end their lives in a supernova produce the natural elements heavier than iron. the others in this thread are correct when they say that synthetic elements with even higher atomic #s have been created in the lab, even if it is only for infinitesimal fractions of a second before they decay into something natural.

 

[Biftheunderstudy]

Smaller stars can also make heavy elements in the white dwarf stage.

 

[Sunny129]

Smaller stars can also make heavy elements in the white dwarf stage.

i'm assuming you're referring to novae?

 

[Biftheunderstudy]

Right. Our sun will like not doing anything fun, but nearly 50% of stars have a companion so novae (Type 1A supernovae) are quite frequent.

 

[Sunny129]

gotcha...just wanted to make sure i understood your initial statement...b/c novae and Type 1A supernovae are the only ways in which a white dwarf can produce heavier elements as far as i know (which of course requires a companion star close enough that some of its matter accretes around the white dwarf). otherwise, a white dwarf without a companion will do nothing but fade for billions or trillions of years until it has radiated all its energy away.

 

[Ninjahedge]

As an addon, I remember a while ago that they are still looking for ways to make bigger elements. Theory is that they will be able to get to the next rung of "stable" elements if they can get past this latest grouping (I forgot the nomenclature).

This, of course, was probably 20 years ago and I do not believe they have found the latest Noble Gas/possibly solid or liquid (due to relative density)....