AS102 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Logarithmic Scale
Document Summary
This next comment is going to sound just a little biblical (so get ready!). In the beginning well, if the big bang. From our study of the births and deaths of star in module 6 you know that atoms heavier than helium are created through nuclear fusion. Through the deaths of low-mass stars carbon and some oxygen are formed. Through the deaths of high-mass stars elements up to iron are created. Elements with masses greater than iron are formed during supernova explosions. The current abundance of elements in the universe is shown below. The graph on the left plots the abundance of elements using a logarithmic or exponential scale. The graph on the right uses the typical linear scale. You see that there is much, much more hydrogen and helium in the universe than anything else (buy shares in gold!!
