Background Information
In stars the nuclei of Hydrogen and Helium is fused into heavier elements. It is also believed that the relative high abundance of Hydrogen Helium and Lithium is because they were all created during the Big Bang by something known as Big Bang Nucleosynthesis.
Nucleosynthesis
Elements heavier than Lithium are all synthesised in a star (Wollack, 2010) that means that the first three elements of the periodic table (Hydrogen, Helium and Lithium) were all synthesised before the stars were made which means that they could only have been produced when the Big Bang happened. It takes nearly 10 million years to burn through all the Hydrogen in a star and then a further 1 million years in order to turn all the Helium into heavier elements up until Iron (Refer to Figure 1) (Jones, 2019) this massive time frame does not fit into the creation theory which deals with thousands of years not millions of years. On the other hand though Physicist Lawrence Krauss notes that it takes 100 000 years for Carbon to burn into Oxygen, then 10 000 for Oxygen to burn into Silicon then 1 day for Silicon to burn into Iron and collapse the star (Jones, 2019) this does fit in a bit more with the creation theory but is still too large a time frame for the creation theory to deal with. There are eight physical processes involved in stellar nucleosynthesis Burbidge et al., 1957). However only one process gives us a time scale. The s process is a process of neutron capture that emits gamma radiation (Burbidge et al., 1957). This takes place over a long time scale ranging from ~100 years to ~105 years for each neutron capture (Burbidge et al., 1957, pg 5). This mode of synthesis is responsible for the production of the majority of the isotopes with an atomic mass in the range of 23 ≤ A ≤ 46 and for a considerable proportion of the isotopes with an atomic mass in the range 63 ≤ A ≤ 209 (Burbidge et al., 1957). The isotopes that the s process produces are Ne22, Na23, and P31.
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Redshift
Redshift is the displacement of the spectrum of an astronomical object toward longer (red) wavelengths. (Augustyn et al., 2019). It is generally attributed to the Doppler effect, a change in wavelength that results when a given source of waves (light or radio waves) and an observer are in rapid motion with respect to each other. (Augustyn et al., 2019). Redshift shows that the universe is expanding at an ever increasing rate (Drayer, 2016). This was observed by Edward Hubble in the 1920’s when he used the 100-inch Hooker telescope in southern California to observe the Andromeda galaxy. (Study.com, 2019). According to the Big Bang Theory the universe used to be a hot sludge of plasma too hot for atoms to be made but the ever expanding of the universe cooled the plasma down below the ~3000K mark which allowed atoms to be formed but in the instant before the plasma cooled it let out a massive amount of energy in the form of orange light that travels across the universe forever but the expansion of the universe redshifted the orange light into infrared over the course of a few million years (PBS Space Time, 2015) and then eventually to microwave wavelengths. This radiation is now called the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMB) Redshift can be calculated by the formula z = (λobserved - λrest)/λrest where z is the redshift value (Lco.global, 2019) so for example if we were to take a wavelength of 400nm and we observed it at 500nm using that formula we get:
z = (500 - 400)/400
z = 0.25
Since the z value is 0.25 the light source has been travelling for 2.916 billion years and is now 3.620 billion light years away (Lco.global, 2019). To calculate the redshift of the CMB we will need to use another formula since we don’t know the original wavelength of the CMB. This formula is: z=Original TempCurrent Temp (Evans, 2015) where the temperature is in Kelvin (K). Using this we get the equation:
z=30002.725
z=1100
This means that according to the scale used earlier with that the time for the light to be redshifted this much is around 13.7996 Billion years which is about when the CMB is thought to be created. A creation view of redshift is that the galaxies that are outside our galactic group have redshifts one one side of the nucleus and blueshift of the other side indicating that the galaxy is spinning and the speed at which it is spinning close to the nucleus is slower than the speed on the outside and that the rotational speed at the outside of the galaxy is too fast for the galaxy to hold itself together and after around a 100 million years (Hartnett, 2015). This means that the creation view of only having a universe of around 6000 years old fits in. If the galaxies were to hold themselves together they would need a halo of dark matter to keep them stable for the tens of billions of years that they have existed in the Big Bang Theory (Hartnett, 2015).
Limitations of Sources
Most of the sources found were made by atheists who believe the Big Bang theory therefore there is little evidence for the creation theory in the research found. The only source that gives a creation view on the topics discussed is unreliable as it biased because taking a look at the sources of the article reveals that the author has cited his own work to prove his points which means the source is unreliable. The sources that are by the atheists don’t give any view into the creation side of things or don’t show ways that their research is wrong or can’t be proven.
Reference List
- Augustyn, A., Bauer, P., Duignan, B., Eldridge, A., Gregerson, E., McKenna, A., Petruzzello, M., Rafferty, J., Ray, M., Rogers, K., Tikkanen, A., Wallenfeldt, J., Zeidan, A. and Zelazko, A. (2019). Redshift | astronomy. [online] Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/science/redshift
- Burbidge, M., Burbidge, G., Fowler, W. and Hoyle, F. (1957). Synthesis of the Elements in Stars. 29th ed. Reviews of Modern Physics, pp.3-7, 13.
- Drayer, D. (2016). How does a redshift give evidence to the Big Bang Theory? | Socratic. [online] Socratic.org. Available at: https://socratic.org/questions/how-does-a-redshift-give-evidence-to-the-big-bang-theory
- Evans, R. (2015). What is the redshift of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB)?. [online] thecuriousastronomer. Available at: https://thecuriousastronomer.wordpress.com/2015/07/30/what-is-the-redshift-of-the-cosmic-microwave-background-cmb/
- Hartnett, D. (2015). Speculation on Redshift in a Created Universe. [online] Answers in Genesis. Available at: https://answersingenesis.org/astronomy/cosmology/speculation-redshift-created-universe/
- Jones, A. (2019). How Stars Make All of the Elements. [online] ThoughtCo. Available at: https://www.thoughtco.com/stellar-nucleosynthesis-2699311
- Lco.global. (2019). Redshift | Las Cumbres Observatory. [online] Available at: https://lco.global/spacebook/light/redshift/
- PBS Space Time (2015). Cosmic Microwave Background Explained | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tCMd1ytvWg
- Study.com. (2019). Evidence for the Big Bang Theory: Background Radiation, Red-Shift and Expansion. [online] Available at: https://study.com/academy/lesson/evidence-for-the-big-bang-theory-background-radiation-red-shift-and-expansion.html
- Webhome.phy.duke.edu. (n.d.). the cosmic microwave background. [online] Available at: http://webhome.phy.duke.edu/~kolena/cmb.htm
- Wollack, E. (2010). WMAP Big Bang Elements Test. [online] Map.gsfc.nasa.gov. Available at: https://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/universe/bb_tests_ele.html
- Appendix A: A flowchart of Stellar Nucleosynthesis and the modes which the elements are produced
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