Something Deeply Hidden - a photo on Flickriver

            “Man inhabits a universe composed of a great variety of elements and their isotopes… What has been the history of the matter, which produced the elements and isotopes of that matter in
the abundance distribution which observation yields?”
~From the article ‘Synthesis of the Elements in Stars’ (1957) by Burbridge, Burbridge, Fowler, and Hoyle (the B2FH paper).

In the winter of 1953, three stellar physicists crossed path at the Cambridge Kapitsa Club. Here, Margaret Burbridge and Geoff Burbridge met Willy Fowler, the Caltech nuclear physicist, who was then on a sabbatical leave across the pond. Joined soon after by Fred Hoyle, the group brain-stormed answers to a simple question: where did all the matter around us come from? As they knew it then, hydrogen, helium, and lithium likely came from the big bang. But where did remaining elements come from? 

Many informal discussions over pre-dinner martinis led to more formal research momentum when the Burbridges accepted Fowler’s invitation to join him in Pasadena (Caltech). Building on Hoyle’s earlier work, the group determined how elements –all elements from carbon to uranium– are created in stars. Within the core of stars (‘stellar nucleosynthesis’). A young star first burns the primeval and abundant hydrogen to form helium. Then, when hydrogen is exhausted during stellar evolution, the star burns helium. All the while it produces a variety isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, neon, and sodium. As the core temperature rises, energy is converted to evolve matter. The star burns various elements in six additional stages to produce a cornucopia of all elements in the periodic table, the last being uranium. Finally, when a star explodes and ends its luminous journey in a supernova, it scatters all its elements in the stellar nebula to seed new stars and galaxies.

Speaking of luminous journeys, I had one the other day at the Isle Royale National Park where we came across some spectacular views at the Scoville point. Here, if you believe the eye, the land and the realm end. In front of me were layers of exposed rocks inhabited by life in its barest forms, the lichens. Most lichens were of striking colors, an invitation my eyes could not refuse on that cloudy day. Contemplating by a patch of fluorescent yellow lichen (above), my conscious thoughts borrowed heavily from the B2FH paper and dissolved into erratics. Where did all the matter I am made of come from? Not the sun, the star closest to us. As per B2FH’s calculations, a star needs 6.6 billion years or so to form uranium. Earth has uranium, but the solar system is only 4.5 billion years old. Which means, earth’s uranium –and likely most other elements– came from past stars that blew up. We are their smithereens... their scattered ashes. We are their ghosts. These rocks, these fluorescent lichens, these thoughts… we are all remnants of obliterated stars. Considering our cosmic endowments, we are both utterly irrelevant and profoundly precious. Our finite presence holds within the infinite of the eternal universe. ‘Something deeply hidden had to be behind things’, Einstein famously wrote about the workings of his childhood magnetic compass. Perhaps nothing really is hidden. We are the things. We are the lightmakers. We are the eternal.

Taken on: June 9, 2023

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Ramen Saha

NationalPark

IsleRoyaleNationalPark

Michigan

Lichen

Rocks

LakeSuperior

ScovilePoint

StollMemorialTrail

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Sets appears in: • National Parks – USA • Elements – Earth

Groups appears in: • Lichen, world wide

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, f/13.0, 15 sec, 24mm, ISO 160 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon EOS 5D Mark IV
Lens:	EF24-70mm f/2.8L II USM
Aperture:	f/13.0
Exposure Time:	15
Focal Length:	24mm
ISO:	160
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 21.2 (Macintosh)
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