Among the proposed explanations on how the universe began, the Big Bang Theory is

the one currently accepted, theoretically. It describes that the universe started with a
singularity defined simply as a point where all matter, time, space, laws of the universe and
reality itself are condensed—ultimately inflating (not exploding) since approximately 14 billion
years ago until now, according to NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration).

Before the planet we live in right now came to existence as all the other planets and
solar systems and galaxies, the earliest elements were formed first.

Let us explore why the elements needed to exist first: all matter that makes up most of
the universe—including us—are made up of elements. These elements are what we study
about in Periodic Tables such as Hydrogen (H), Oxygen (O), and Gold (Au). Now we need to
understand the foundations and formations of elements.

This lesson primarily focuses on the formation of the heavier elements but in order to
understand that, we must first understand how the lighter elements were formed.

The steps below summarize the formation of the earliest and lighter elements in the
heart of massive stars, stars that are nine (9) times the size of our Sun:

1. There is first a huge cloud of Hydrogen (H) atoms. As per the law of the universe,
gravity will pull these atoms together.
2. The core (center) of this cloud will get dense and hot, like when more things rub together
they get hotter and more compressed. This dense and hot core will start to ignite.
3. This ignition is the start of fusion and since the atoms that are fusing (clumping together)
are Hydrogen atoms, this is called Hydrogen Fusion happening in the core of the cloud.

*KEEP IN MIND: When the Hydrogen fusion takes place, this doesn’t mean that
ALL the Hydrogen atoms are already fusing. The rest of the Hydrogen atoms that
are farther from the core remains outside the core. This trend happens not only
with Hydrogen but also with other elements when they start to fuse at a later stage
of element formation.

4. The heated core eventually becomes plasma: a soup of electrons and nucleuses that
are not as well-formed, explaining why they aren’t atoms yet.
5. Hydrogen atoms will eventually fuse into Helium (He) and this (He) is now the new core.
The surroundings of this (He) core is the previous (H) now called H-shell or H fusion
shell.
 Figure 1.1 Shows the fusion of the isotopes of Hydrogen atoms to form a Helium atom.

6. Since the remaining H-shell are also constantly fusing into the (He) core, more (He) is
formed building up. With this (He) build-up, where gravity pulls atoms inward, there is
also pressure which pushes the H-shell outward causing the size of the star to get
bigger.
7. Steps 1-6 is going to continue until other fusions starts to happen:

a. (He) fuses with (H) into a Carbon (C) core with a He-shell outside it;
b. (C) fuses with (He) into Oxygen (O) core with a C-shell outside of it; and so on until
Iron (Fe).

8. Why do we stop at Fe? It’s because in order to produce another element after Fe, more
energy is needed than what the existing fusion can supply. That does not mean only the
elements from H to Fe are real elements. Heavier elements continue to form where there
is enough energy: during supernovae (plural of supernova—when stars explode and die)
and neutron-star mergers (when stars merges).

Stellar Nucleosynthesis is one of the ways heavier elements are formed.

Nucleosynthesis explains how new atomic nucleus are formed from nucleons preceding from
the new ones. There is also Nuclear Fusion, a process where neutrons and protons combine
to new atoms. Nuclear fusion is how elements Hydrogen, Helium and small amounts of Lithium
and Beryllium were formed.