Surprisingly, NASA’s Astronomical Picture of the Day is not a spectacular view of the universe, but a periodic table! Read on to know why.
Every day, NASA presents a different picture of our fascinating universe along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Today, the image does not have any spectacular images of a galaxy in the deep universe nor does it reveal any invisible images of our largest star, the Sun. Instead, NASA dedicates today’s astronomical picture to the periodic table of the elements. If you can recall your chemistry classes in school, it’s the same periodic table, but with a slight twist! NASA’s shared periodic table is color-coded to indicate humanity’s most accurate prediction of the nuclear origin of all known elements. In other words, it represents “Where do your elements come from.”
The fusion of the Big Bang, the fission of cosmic rays to blow up giant stars, the table explains it all. According to the color-coded representation of the periodic table, Helium and Hydrogen are elements from the Big Bang fusion. While Beryllium and Boron are from cosmic ray fission. While sharing the photo, NASA give an explanation of the origin of water in the human body, it reads, “The hydrogen in your body, present in every molecule of water, came from the Big Bang. There is no other significant source of hydrogen in the universe.” Likewise, “the carbon in your body is made from nuclear fusion inside stars, as is oxygen. Much of the iron in your body is made in supernovas of stars that occur long and very far away.”
Not only the elements in the human body, NASA also explains the origin of yellow in your jewelry is likely made from neutron stars in collisions that can be seen as short-lived gamma-ray bursts or gravitational wave events. Available elements such as phosphorus and copper are present in the human body in only small amounts but are essential for the functioning of all known life.
Do you know?
The periodic table has 118 confirmed elements. Among them, 90 elements can be found in nature, while others are completely man-made. And you know what? Technetium is the first man-made element
