Thursday, May 28, 2009

Most Popular Atom in the Universe

The universe is a big, big place, too large for our primitive human brains to actually grasp in its true dimensions. I've heard and read many times that hydrogen is the most populous atom in the universe, and this makes sense, since the universe is made of galactic clusters, galaxies, a ridiculous amount of empty breadth, and dust. Galaxies are constructed of stars and their possible solar systems, and since stars are fusion engines--slamming two hydrogen atoms into helium and them ripping them apart, over and over--and since one estimate puts the number of stars in our universe at one-hundred-billion-trillion (100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000), it makes sense that with all the empty space dotted with galaxies that the simplest atom would be the most abundant.

But, if we examine a source closer to home, like, say living matter, check out the result: of every 100 atoms of living matter (on Earth anyway), 40 will be hydrogen. I would imagine that this is because living matter on Earth is mostly water, and then, next, organic molecules, which are hydrocarbons--rings of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen.

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