06 / CHEMISTRY AT A LARGER SCALE
Same elements. Different worlds.
The atoms you met in the lab also build planets, moons and stars. Discover what each world is made of, and how its ingredients came to be.
Earth
About 4.54 billion years oldGathering a little stardust…
Earth at a glance.
THE FACTS YOU LOVE✳
A day, a spin, and a year — what is the difference? +
Planets rearrange ingredients. Stars can make new elements.Chemical reactions join and separate atoms. Nuclear reactions change their nuclei.
From its earliest ingredients to the chemistry at work today.
WHAT IS IT ACTUALLY MADE OF?
A world built in layers.
The science words, in plain language +
- Accretion
- Growth by gathering material. Dust, rocks and larger bodies collide and become parts of a growing world.
- Differentiation
- Separation into layers. When materials can move, dense metal can collect deeper inside while lighter rocky material stays above.
- Silicate
- A mineral built around silicon and oxygen, often with magnesium, iron or other elements bonded into its structure.
- Volatile
- A substance that becomes gas more readily than rock under the relevant conditions. Water and many carbon compounds are examples.
- Isotope
- A version of an element with a different number of neutrons. Some isotopes decay at predictable rates, providing clocks for dating materials.
- Plasma
- Matter with free electrons and electrically charged atoms or nuclei. Much of the Sun is in this state.
A material guide, not a measured cross-section. Zone sizes are illustrative; real boundaries may be diffuse and ingredients can mix.
SELECT A ZONE TO EXPLORE
WHEN AND HOW DID IT FORM?
From scattered matter to a world.
THE CHEMISTRY BEHIND WHAT WE SEE
Familiar elements. Extraordinary conditions.
Follow the bonds, physical states, and reactions that give this world its character. Nuclear reactions are identified separately.
WHERE DID THE CHEMICALS COME FROM?
Older than the world itself.
Making an element’s nucleus, bonding atoms into materials, and assembling a planet are different steps.
Follow an individual element.
Discover its origin, then find it in other worlds.
What is everything made of?
A planet’s air is not the same as its whole composition. Choose the kind of comparison you want to make.
Every element has a story.
Many of a planet’s ingredients existed long before the planet itself. Follow the stages that made and gathered them.
Choose an element. Find its beginning.
Colours group the broad origins. Many elements have more than one production route.
The Sun is a nuclear furnace, not a chemical fire.In its core, hydrogen nuclei ultimately become helium. Ordinary burning rearranges atoms in molecules; it does not turn one element into another.