Lithium Theory Lab Report

Improved Essays
Theory on Lithium in Stars May Be
Confirmed

The light chemical element lithium is one of the few elements that is predicted to have been created by the Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago. But understanding the amounts of lithium observed in stars around us today in the Universe has given astronomers headaches.

Most heavy elements are produced during supernovae, as massive stars explode in their death throes. However, these events were believed to be too rare to produce the vast amount of lithuim seen in the modern universe. Starting in the 1970s, astrophysicists began to explore the idea that the smaller but far more common novae could provide the material needed to spice surrounding stars with the element.

The discovery of lithium in the debris of an exploding star has allowed astronomers to unravel one of the outstanding
…show more content…
Observations of Nova Centauri 2013 made using telescopes at ESO's La Silla Observatroy, and near Santiago in Chile, help to explain the mystery of why many young stars seem to have more of this chemical element than expected. This new finding fills in a long-missing piece in the puzzle representing our galaxy's chemical evolution, and is a big step forward for astronomers trying to understand the amounts of different chemical elements in stars in the Milky Way.

The quantity of lithium produced in the nova in the Centauri system was relatively small. However, researchers believe that enough of therse events may occur throughout the universe to explain the discrepancy seen in lithium concentrations in younger and older stars.

Nova Centauri 2013 (also called V1369 Centauri) erupted in the nearly Centauri star system two year ago, becoming visible to the naked eye. These eventes take place in binary systems, where one partner loses material to its companion. When this deposit of gas and dust reaches a certain threshold, the gas erupts into a violent

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Nt1310 Unit 6 Lab

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The purpose of this lab was to analyze and examine periodic trends of the first 36 elements that are on the periodic table. Trends that were analyzed and examined are the atomic radius (AR) and the first ionization energy (IE) of the 36 elements. The hypothesis for this lab was that the elements that are in the groups that had the highest atomic radius would be in the same groups as those who have the the highest first ionization energy and the groups who have the lowest atomic radius would be in the same groups as those elements who have the lowest first ionization energy. In order for the lab to be completed, a chart that was split into four sections was made to collect all the necessary data that is needed to make the graphs. After the data has been collected, a graph that contains both trends was made on a piece of graph paper.…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to chemistry professor Carolyn Ruth, author of “Where Do Chemical Elements Come From?,” all fundamental elements are fabricated from the explosion of stars, commonly referred to as supernovas. Essentially, Ruth contends that a newborn star is primarily…

    • 324 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A British astronomer Fred Hoyle discovered that vital heavy elements can be built inside stars only because a carbon-12 nucleus can be made from the fusion of 3 helium nuclei. For the reaction to proceed, carbon-12 must match the energy level of the 3 helium nuclei when the fusion takes place.(Chown) This has been used as an example for the Fine Tuned argument. However, in 1989, astrophysicist Mario Livio showed that the carbon-12 energy level could have actually been significantly different and still resulted in a universe with the heavy elements needed for life. (Chown)…

    • 744 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Next, the core contracts as the outer layers expand. This is leading to the explosion of stars eventually becoming a planetary nebula or supernova,…

    • 898 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Atomic Model

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In order to understand the composition of stars, we look at the spectral lines of the atoms outside the star. From the lines in the spectrograph, we are able to find out how much of each and what kind of atoms there are in the stars. Through electromagnetism, quantum mechanics, and the atomic model, we are able to see that stars are made primarily…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    John Cade Research Paper

    • 1270 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Available from: http://inhn.org/profiles/john-cade.html ¬ Mitchell, PB n.d., John Cade’s discovery of Lithium, Available from:…

    • 1270 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    These three elements begin forming in the exact opposite of the s-process, (the r-process). Right after a supernova the elements scatter all over the galaxy and eventually find homes on different planets. Stars are really important to the element of…

    • 1171 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sara Seager Essay

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Sara Seager is considered a pioneer in the research of exoplanets, a relatively new field of study which largely began in the 1990s. Seager, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist, has been called an “astronomical Indiana Jones” and was named Time Magazine’s 25 Most Influential in Space in 2012. She is currently a professor of planetary science and physics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She received her B.Sc. degree in mathematics and physics for the University of Toronto in 1994, and a Ph.D. in Astronomy from Harvard University in 1999.…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Joan Voute, an asronomer, determined that the star's trigonometric parallax is at 0.755 ± 0.028″. He also discovered that this star is relativly the same distance from the Sun as Alpha Centauri. At the time, proxima Centauri was considered to be the smallest-luminosity star. Analysis of…

    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Eta Cars Research Paper

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Eta Carinae is the only star to produce ultraviolet laser emission. The second star is hot and is high in luminosity, the secondary is about 30 to 80 times as big as the sun. The gravity and the high radiation shows on how we will never be able to inhabit the planet, our neighbors. The Eta Carinae is such a big star or stars of our solar system that if you put it in the center of our system it would blind us and would stretch beyond Earth’s orbit. The Eta Carinae spews out material, in what is called “stellar wind.”…

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    This paper will help answer some questions about Proxima Centauri that people may ask. The universe has many things that cannot be explained, but sometimes scientists help answer question these questions. The questions that will be answered in this paragraph the questions about the star will be answered. People ask, is Proxima Centauri smaller or larger than our sun? The answer is that Proxima Centauri is smaller than the sun, the size of proxima Centauri is 124,000 km in diameter.…

    • 480 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In September of 1985 Kroto, Heath, O’Brien, Curl, and Smalley were investigating sources of the long carbon chain molecules in the interstellar medium and how they might be related to soot formation.1 Smalley developed a laser vaporization cluster beam apparatus that allowed for the mass-spectrometric study of stable clusters formed in a helium-entrained plasma produced by a pulse of laser aimed on at a solid target.2 This experimental technique was a very important discovery to cluster science because it made refractory clusters available for detailed study for the first time.2 Smalley initially used this technique to analyze the molecular structure of SiC2, but Kroto decided to replace the SiC2 with graphite.2 He believed this technique…

    • 1387 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Star Formations Every star you see at night in the sky is bigger and brighter than our sun. Stars are born within clouds of dust and gas that is spread throughout most every galaxy. The life of a star includes many stages from nebulas to the mysterious black holes. Stars are responsible for the creation and circulation of heavy elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen.…

    • 1348 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Lab Report Physics

    • 2157 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Part B’s objectives focus on the fundamental understanding of atomic emission and the Balmer Series. The objectives for this section include the proper recording…

    • 2157 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Spectroscopy Essay

    • 1635 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The ions are detected electronically by electron multiplier and results are displayed as spectra of relative abundance as a function of the mass-to-charge ratio (Anon., n.d.). The sample can be identified by the mass of fragments and the fragmentation pattern (Anon., n.d.). (Sparkman, 2000) 2.3 Mass Spectrum 2.3.1 Nature Mass spectrum will be presented as a vertical bar graph (Anon., n.d.). Each bar represents an ion having specific mass-to-charge ratio (m/z) and the length of the bar indicates the relative abundance of the ion (Anon., n.d.).…

    • 1635 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays