Stars: atom factories

The galaxies are full of dust clouds, they are basically very large clouds of gas and dust. These clouds of dust are usually dark because they are very cold and in them in recent years is discovering all kinds of things: organic compounds, water and cyanide, fullerenes, etc ...

All those things have been put there by the stars. Within the stars many of the atoms we are made of are created, such as carbon, oxygen and iron. We know that the stars are very hot and to create the atom nucleus they need millions of degrees. It's normal for stars to make these things, the funny thing is that the stars are also the origin of things like methanol or graphite, substances that are destroyed at high temperatures. At present, it is being studied why these substances also appear in stars.

The secret for all these chemical substances to appear is that these compounds can not be created inside the star itself, inside the star is too hot, but they can be created in the atmosphere of the star which is something we don't usually think about because at first sight we only see the body of the star that is bright but actually that body is surrounded by gas that forms a kind of atmosphere around it.

That gas has been emitted by the star itself because all the stars are hot and literally melt away, material is escaping into space. Precisely the oldest stars lose so much matter that they have gigantic atmospheres, they are as big as half solar system and it's in these special places where all kinds of chemicals are formed.

These chemicals form at low temperatures away from the star, and others form at high temperatures near the star. In those places a kind of dust grains form and accumulate, and then when the life of the star ends all that chemical charge it spreads through interstellar space, waiting for it to one day end up on some planet like Earth.

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