Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

NEYO8uw11qgD0J t1_iun3kwm wrote

So if the cooling process were longer, we'd have more heavier elements outright rather than waiting for stellar evolution to provide the rest, correct?

3

Shufflepants t1_iun7vlf wrote

Would have to be longer specifically within the right temperature and pressure range, but yes.

6

nivlark t1_iuowfau wrote

Not necessarily, because the restrictions they described would still exist: lithium would still be incredibly scarce, and the conditions simply aren't extreme enough to get the triple-alpha process running, counter-intuitive as that may sound. The problem here is that fusing two ^(4)He nuclei produces ^(8)Be, which has an astonishingly short half-life of one ten thousand trillionth of a second. Only inside the core of a massive star is the reaction rate high enough to fuse a third helium nucleus to make stable ^(12)C before the ^(8)Be falls apart.

3

omigodd OP t1_iuo0qcp wrote

Alternatively, if Beryllium-8 was stable, we could have had heavier elements

2