re: Space Topic, Asteroids

Space is a dirty place.

It is full of amino acids and hydrocarbons.

There is more water in the Universe than we can imagine.

And I'm convinced after looking at the photos from the Webb space telescope that the Universe is a wet muddy place.

Asteroids come from past collisions of planetesimals while the solar system was being formed.

The Asteroid Belt was supposed to be a planet between Mars and Jupiter but it could not get its' act together.

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Where did these rocks come from?

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Supernova events.

Iron is the heaviest element made in a normal fusion reaction of a star.

Stars fuse lighter elements (hydrogen to helium, up to iron) in their cores during their lifetimes. Iron fusion is not energetically favorable because it consumes energy rather than releases it. During a supernova explosion, the extreme temperatures and pressures, and neutron flux enable rapid neutron capture (r-process) and other processes that create elements heavier than iron, such as gold, silver, uranium, and others.

I took two semester of Astronomy.

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Stars fuse lighter elements (hydrogen to helium, up to iron) in their cores during their lifetimes. Iron fusion is not energetically favorable because it consumes energy rather than releases it. During a supernova explosion, the extreme temperatures and pressures, and neutron flux enable rapid neutron capture (r-process) and other processes that create elements heavier than iron, such as gold, silver, uranium, and others.

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This is a fun fact. Every molecule of iron in your blood was created in the core of a dying star

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Every molecule of iron in your blood was created in the core of a dying star

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I have to nitpick but it's every molecule containing iron.

The ion of elemental iron Fe2+ binds to hemoglobin protein and other proteins like myoglobin.

But not only iron, every atom that makes up the molecules in your body come from dead stars.

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how can you be a geologist and not understand the basics of matter in its various states? Seriously how is this possible?

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What is your specific question you want answered? Has anybody ever told you asteroids were pieces of former planets that were destroyed? Or did you just think "well it's stuff out there"? And there are carbonaceous and icy bodies also out there.

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And there are carbonaceous and icy bodies also out there.

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Wait until they find out that the moon of Saturn, Titian is covered in what we call fossil fuels here on Earth.

I think this graphic is pretty informative:

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Iron is the heaviest element made in a normal fusion reaction of a star.

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Yes, I researched this. And any heavier element, and there are a bunch, is the result of neutron capture in the gasping, energetic final explosive stages of some stars life.

So large chunks of mostly iron objects could be chunks of dead stars. I will also add that the volcanic rock basalt or plutonic gabbro are iron rich olivine rich rocks sourced from the mantle of the earth. There are meteorites discovered with large olivine crystals within. Olivine as a gemstone is peridot. So that stuff is also found out there in the asteroid belt. I could discuss the petrology of earth rocks more but I won't. I worked in the oil business.

As a star runs out of hydrogen fuel, it begins to form heavier elements such as carbon and oxygen. This is part of the final step in the life cycle of a star before it goes nova. Once iron is formed, the star can no longer push against its own gravity and explodes. In the explosion, neutron capture occurs, where the iron fuses into even heavier elements like gold and platinum.

Most of what coalesced into our solar system was the remnants of early start formation and death (early starts had much shorter, violent lives).