366 The Bible According to Einstein The seventeenth book of Creation, called
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The Old Testament 367
Now carbon catalyzed the processes as follows. A carbon-twelve nucleus absorbed a proton and metamorphosed into a nitrogen-thirteen nucleus. The nitrogen-thirteen decayed to carbon-thirteen, which in turn fused with a proton to produce nitrogen-fourteen. Then the nitrogen-fourteen absorbed another proton and became oxygen-fifteen. The oxygen-fifteen decayed into nitrogen-fifteen. And finally, the nitrogen-fifteen merged with a proton and produced helium-four and carbon-twelve. Chapter III: No More Protons in the Core Two-million years passed by. And it had happened that all hydrogen was depleted at the center of the giant star a tiny core of nuclei of helium-four was there. And the star began to digest protons at the surface of the sphere of helium. And as the star digested more, so grew the helium core. The star was a hungry one and was shining seventy-thousand times brighter than the Sun. |
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368 The Bible According to Einstein
And he who devoureth during the first seven years of plenty Then ten-million years went by; the giant star had consumed what an average star consumes in ten-billion years. And the innermost one-quarter of the star had been converted into helium. Chapter IV: The Helium Flash And suddenly, helium fusion activated. And in the core, three helium-four nuclei merged into a carbon-twelve, while ejecting energetic photons. And everywhere within the central core, helium nuclei did fuse. Chapter V: A Red Supergiant Arises And the star’s new size was great a red supergiant star had it become. And with a radius of three-hundred-million kilometers, it was large enough to hold within its body the orbits of the Earth and Mars if they had been in that vicinity.64
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63 This is fifteen times hotter than the temperature at the center of the Sun. Collapsing systems tend to heat up as constituents bump against each other. See the Book of Thermodynamics. In this case, gravitation potential energy is converted into heat. |
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The Old Testament 369
The star had had no choice but to consume its stomach. The burning of helium and heavier nuclei was like unto an ulcer. The star was sick inside. Chapter VI: No More Helium in the Core One million years went by. Having been converted into carbon, the last nuclei of helium in the central core were finally exhausted. And a sudden drop in energy resulted in a drop in outward-flowing radiation pressure. And so the star did shrink. And as it shrank, the central density soared to two-hundred-fifty-thousand times the density of water and the central temperature climbed to seven-hundred-million Kelvins. Chapter VII: The Carbon Flash, the Neon Flash And suddenly did carbon fusion activate in the core, two carbon-twelves combined, producing nuclei of neon, magnesium, oxygen and sodium. And these reactions also generated energetic photons, neutrons, helium-four nuclei and protons. And for a second time, there was a flash, as the entire carbon core ignited. And the inner region of the star exploded in an enormous blast. And the core shook back and forth. But eventually did the star obtain an equilibrium. The cancer had begun to drain the star of strength. And carbon burned for just two-thousand years. And when the carbon in the core was gone, the star contracted, the central temperature doubled to one-and-one-half billion Kelvins, and the central density surged to seven-million times the density of water.65 And neon fusion in the core commenced.
____________________ 65 Compared with the conditions at the center of the Sun, the star at this point was one-hundred times hotter and more than forty-thousand times denser! |
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370 The Bible According to Einstein
Chapter VIII: The Energy Drain And the sizzling core produced such highly energetic photons that photonuclear dissociation did begin a highly energetic photon struck a nucleus and tore the nucleus in two. Now in this fission process, energy from photons was absorbed. Thus photonuclear dissociation sapped the core of energy. Chapter IX: Heavier Elements Feed the Star And in just twelve years, the neon in the core was gone! The energy output in the core declined. And since the outward flow of radiation no longer could support the heavy star, the core contracted. The central temperature did increase to two-billion Kelvins; the central density did double. And oxygen nuclei began to "burn." Two oxygens merged and made magnesium, sulfur, silicon and phosphorus. Thus oxygen fusion fueled the core, providing energy for heat, for radiation, and for the parasitic processes of neutrino emission and photonuclear dissociation. |
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The Old Testament 371
In its core, the star was starving. The core burned anything to satisfy its need for energy. But iron would not burn. Now let it be known to thee and all around thee that iron is the most stable of all nuclei. When iron fuses, energy is absorbed and not released. Thus for a star, iron is like dead material. Chapter X: The Nuclear Rainbow Now the star had lived for only thirteen million years yet it was old, for its body had severely aged, and its structure had severely changed: There were an iron core and five concentric shells. And the inner shell was made of silicon and sulfur; the second shell contained oxygen, magnesium and neon; the third was made of oxygen and carbon; the fourth was formed of helium; and the outer shell was hydrogen. Thus the star was like unto an onion the onion layers were layers of elements. Chapter XI: The Core Goes Critical Now with little radiation to support the core, the core contracted. And iron nuclei were squeezed together. Likewise, electrons were pushed against each other. And this squeezing of electrons led to pressure. And the dead core shrank until the pressure from electrons matched the force of gravity. Thus electron-pressure counterbalanced weight and did prevent complete collapse. The ants were holding up the elephant. And time ticked like unto a sparking fuse of dynamite. As silicon which burned around the core turned into iron, the dense dead core accrued more mass. And the core’s weight upon itself increased. And this caused the electrons and the iron nuclei to squeeze together more. Chapter XII: The Inner Core Collapses And in the next split second, weight overwhelmed the pressure. Thus the mighty force of gravity had won the war against the miniscule electrons. The elephant, of course, had triumphed.
____________________ 66 Here and below, a day refers to a unit of time twenty-four hours that is, the time it takes the Earth to rotate once in the third millennium AD. Since the Earth did not yet exist, one might wonder whether concepts such as year or day make sense. |
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Now in the onion-structured shells outside the core, the star kept fusing nuclei. And these fusions generated heat and radiation and supported the weight of the outer regions of the star. And at the stellar surface, light continued to be emitted brilliantly, but the star was as good as gone. The ill-tempered star would die The core collapse commenced. As electrons and iron nuclei were squeezed together at the center of the star, electrons merged with protons, producing neutrons and neutrinos. Electron disappearance in the core reduced the pressure more. In contrast to most situations, the collapse of matter made the pressure drop instead of rise. The internal resistance was completely gone. The fist of gravity was free to pound the floor. The hand of gravity accelerated matter to the center of the core. The central temperature did soar. The foundation of a tall building is dynamited. And the core collapsed in an implosion. And it was like a movie running backward of an explosion. |
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The Old Testament 373
Chapter XIII: The Inner Core Rebounds And like unto a ball bouncing off a wall deforming, squashing then expanding the inner core rebounded. And nuclear matter halted in its tracks and then drove out. And there was a thunder-deafening ring. And from the center did emanate a wave of pressure at the speed of sound. But the iron in the outer core continued to fall in at one-fourth the speed of light. And the outward-moving pressure wave pushed against the flow of inward-falling nuclei. And it was as walking through a wind of raining iron. It was like unto a rower rowing in a stream against a current, At the center of the star, nuclear material continued to compress. The compression produced more pressure waves. These secondary pressure waves pushed out and joined the original principal pressure wave, adding energy and pressure to that wave. And a bulge of tremendous pressure and great energy developed there. And energy furnished to the wave propelled it through the heavy rain of iron. And the pressure-build-up-point sped out at one-twentieth the speed of light. The rower was given help and strength A millisecond passed. Deep inside, the protons and the neutrons in the iron rained in and joined the other nucleons. The giant nugget of a nucleus grew to twenty-two kilometers in size. Inside the nucleonic nugget, intense pressure and high density did push electrons into protons. And as the electrons and the protons merged and disappeared, neutrons and neutrinos took their place. Thus a metamorphosis of charged particles to neutral ones took place. And the sizzling forty-billion-degree-hot nucleonic nugget profusely spit out positron-electron pairs; energy was converted into matter in the form of e-minuse-plus67 pairs as "E turned into mc-squared." As positrons and neutrons merged and disappeared, antineutrinos and protons took their place.
____________________ 67 An electron is also called an e-minus. Likewise, a positron is also called an e-plus. |
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Now outside the core, all was calm, with light radiating from the surface of the star as it had done for a hundred-thousand centuries before. The giant star still shone eighty-thousand times the brightness of the Sun. And the onion layers of elements moved imperceptibly, unperturbed by any agitation in the core. Chapter XIV: The Wave Becomes Destructive And another millisecond passed. At seventy kilometers from the stellar center, the pressure wave had amassed extraordinary energy and pressure. And now the pressure was so strong that iron nuclei, passing through, disintegrated; they completely fell apart, crumbling into protons, helium-four nuclei and neutrons. And it was like unto rock being blasted into pieces by a drill the rock was like the iron; the drill was like the pressure wave. And tremendous was the noise so whopping was the sound that nuclei did pop. The pressure wave had changed its character; it was a shock wave, a destructive wave of enormous force and energy.
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68 Previously the star had assembled protons, neutrons and small nuclei into the larger nuclei. |
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Chapter XV: The Shock Wave Stalls One tenth of a second suddenly went by. At three-hundred kilometers from the stellar center, the shock wave did inch forward. The destruction of nuclei had robbed the wave of energy. And with the loss of energy, the driving force behind its motion dropped. And so the wave slowed down; hardly was it moving. At sunrise, the plow began to till the soil. And deep inside the dying star, the nucleonic nugget ball accumulated mass. And with a radius of seventy kilometers, the ball was of enormous weight. As its mass weighed down and crushed its nucleons, the ball contracted. And this created heat. And the rate of neutrino-antineutrino-pair production soared. But the ball was so dense and hot that only a fraction of the antineutrinos or neutrinos could escape. Chapter XVI: A “Neutrino Star” is Born One tenth of a second passed. And the ball contracted fifty-kilometers was now its radius. Countless neutrinos and antineutrinos were packed within the ball. And some, like drunkards, staggered to the surface and escaped. And there, they streamed outward at the speed of light a "neutrino star" had formed. The outward neutrino-antineutrino flow created pressure71 which matched the force of gravity and slowed the compression of the ball. At its surface, antineutrinos and neutrinos, instead of light, were shining out.
____________________ 71 This pressure arose when some neutrinos and antineutrinos were converted into electrons and positrons after striking nucleons. |
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Chapter XVII: The Wave Is Revitalized by Neutrinos The elements shall melt with fervent heat. And like unto water spraying from a geyser, enormous quantities of antineutrinos and neutrinos so poured forth. And after travelling almost three-hundred kilometers, some struck the floundering shock wave, which was much hotter and much denser than surrounding matter. And the wave absorbed neutrinos, gaining their energy and their momentum. And so the wave edged out the neutrino-antineutrino flow was pushing on the shock wave like unto a wind which blows against a sail. In the field, the rock was overcome. And in less than one-tenth second, the shock wave reached the outer surface of the iron core. The army of destruction had been liberated. Now the shock wave, which was five-billion Kelvins hot, ascended through the layer of silicon and sulfur. And in the region of the wave, silicon-twenty-eight fused with itself, thereby creating nickel-fifty-six and energetic photons. Thus the shock wave stimulated fusion and left behind a trail of radioactive nickel in its wake. And the fusion furnished energy which fed the wave. The army robbed and plundered victims, And the wave travelling at one-fiftieth the speed of light took several seconds to pass the shell of silicon and sulfur. And a tenth of a solar mass of nickel-fifty-six was left behind. Electrons as well as nuclei of nickel, silicon and sulfur were exploding out. The wave reached the base of the magnesium-oxygen-neon layer. And in the region of the wave, oxygen fused with oxygen, thereby producing magnesium, sulfur, silicon and phosphorus. Heat and energy were released which further fueled the wave. And the wave grew even stronger. |
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Chapter XVIII: The “Neutrino Star” Contracts And it came to pass that, deep inside the star, the nucleonic nugget ball grew smaller, hotter, denser forty-kilometers was now its radius, while its temperature was one-hundred-billion Kelvins.72 And enormous quantities of antineutrinos and neutrinos continued to be produced by a thermal bath of liquid nucleons. It was like unto a pot of boiling water the water molecules were like the nucleons; the antineutrinos and neutrinos were like the bubbles and the steam. In colossal numbers, antineutrinos and neutrinos at the surface of the ball poured out. And through the star and at the speed of light did they stream out. Chapter XIX: The Star Explodes And forces shall cause the stars to burst. Now deep inside the star, the shock wave did rage on. And as it sped through the giant star, it spread a bit in width. Thus a thin spherical shell was the region that it occupied. And as it moved out, the shell expanded, and its volume did increase. And as its volume did increase, the energy diluted, causing the wave of shock to cool and to lose speed. As the wild army conquered many distant lands, And the shock wave struck the layer of oxygen and carbon. And the shock wave’s temperature declined below the limit needed for inducing fusion. And nuclear alchemy then ceased. But the wave continued plowing through the oxygen and carbon nuclei.
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72 This is more than six-thousand times the Sun’s core temperature. At this stage, the nugget ball was a billion-billion times denser than the Sun. |
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Three dozen minutes passed. As the shock wave swept throughout the star, electrons and nuclei were blown about. And interior to the wave, all matter, save the central nucleonic ball, exploded out. When the heart of a man stops, Three dozen minutes passed. The shock wave reached the inner edge of the layer-shell of hydrogen. It started plowing through the protons and electrons. . . . . . . . It was three hours after the iron-core collapse. And the shock wave rushed out through the very outer edge of hydrogen, the surface of the star. Boom! The star exploded. It was a supernova. He who hath taken away shall give back. And the nuclei and hydrogen exploded outward at one-tenth the speed of light. The gas leading the advance was one-hundred-thousand Kelvins hot. And the ballooning supernova sphere emitted heavy ultraviolet radiation. And the ultraviolet burst shot out at the speed of light, while the exploding gas was left behind. A pebble fell into a pond of perfectly quiet water. |
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Chapter XX: The Aftermath And near the defunct star, a giant shell of gas swelled out. And as the gas expanded, it did cool. And after several hours, the temperature at the surface of the supernova sphere declined a dozen-fold six-thousand Kelvins hot was it. And at this lower temperature, ultraviolet radiations dropped, and visible emissions took their place. Thus the expanding gas profusely radiated light. And to an eye, the supernova brightened. |
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Two weeks went by. And it had come to pass that each electron in the exploding gas had found a partner. And recombination was complete. And so electrons and the nuclei formed neutral atoms. And the advancing gas became entirely transparent. The supernova shone the brightest it would shine five-hundred-million times the brightness of the Sun.
____________________ 74 The supernova explosion was Nature’s nuclear-bomb blast, except Nature had been more powerful than modern man, for it had produced the output of one-billion-trillion-trillion H-bombs. The four large numbers in this paragraph and the one in this footnote are 3.0 x 1049, 1036, 1040, 1010 and 1033. |
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Chapter XXI: A Neutron Star Is Born And what was left? At the center of the mushrooming radioactive and radiating gas-sphere spun a relatively tiny ball twenty kilometers wide containing a billion-trillion-trillion-trillion-trillion neutrons. It was a giant neutron nucleus, a neutron star. Thus all that remained of the defunct star was its charred stomach. And Nature had rolled the star into a black and tiny ball. The beacon of a light house is turned toward the sky at night. Outside the neutron star, in outer space, were particles. And of the particles, some were charged. And these charged particles were caught in the neutron-star’s magnetic field. And as the field revolved, so did revolve the charges. And those charges that were trapped at a thousand kilometers away from the neutron star moved almost at the speed of light. And they generated long-wavelength radiations75 in collimated waves. And these waves of radio noise beamed outward in a cone, which circled with the circulating field of magnetism, like unto an upward-pointing light-house beam. Now this neutron star was special it was a pulsar; it was Nature’s broadcast station. Nature was sending sounds throughout thy Universe to announce the neutron star’s existence. Chapter XXII: A Collision With a Gaseous Cloud It was one year after the explosion. Debris ejected from the supernova polluted a six-hundred-billion-kilometer interstellar region. And the exploding giant sphere of gas and matter was still ballooning outward at ten-thousand kilometers per second.
____________________ 75 These radiations were radio-frequency synchrotron emissions. |
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And the remaining minute amounts of cobalt-fifty-six decayed and generated gamma rays and X-rays. But the production was significantly lower than before. The supernova star had dimmed considerably. Yet still it shone ten-million times the brightness of the Sun. But all emissions of electromagnetic radiation were dropping quickly in an exponential fashion. And the supernova signalled And the collision of the supernova gas with the cool idle cloud did dent the leading supernova front. And the multi-trillion-kilometer-sized sphere developed a dimple in its shape.78
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76 These were electrons outside atoms that moved freely through the medium. |
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Chapter XXIII: The Supernova: The Almighty Alchemist And the nebula would contain a legacy of elements from hydrogen and helium, from carbon through uranium. Thus this and other supernovas would provide the interstellar regions of the Universe with almost all the non-light elements.80 Daffodils shall bloom Chapter XXIV: Other Supernovas And let it be known to thee and all around thee that supernovas exploded often in the early Universe. And that supernovas have exploded throughout cosmic history and will continue to explode. And that they will erupt wherever stars are found in galactic active nuclei, in the spiral arms of galaxies, in globular and open clusters, in star-rich nebulae, in stars within galactic halos, and so on. And let it be known that supernovas supply material and elements to build new stars. Dead plants shall leave behind
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80 Exceptions would be for beryllium and boron. Most beryllium and boron would be made by cosmic ray collisions of protons with nitrogen-fourteen and carbon-twelve. |
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And the supernova in this Book of Exodus was relatively mild. Now if the mass of the original star had been less, smaller would have been its iron core. The initial shock wave would not have stalled inside the iron core. And it would not have rested and lost energy. Instead, it would have passed directly through the iron core and out. And the pressure of the shock wave would have had more power, the force on nuclei and gas would have been much stronger, and material would have been ejected outward harder. Thus the explosion would have been severer the supernova would have been significantly brighter. Chapter XXV: Supernovas and Life And in the first three minutes, Nature made the hydrogen and helium, which would make stars. And in the billions of years thereafter, stars made the moderately heavy elements from carbon all the way to cobalt. Next Nature made some stars collapse and then explode in supernovas. And the elements were spilled in outer space. And Nature took the elements from all the corners of the Universe and made dust, atoms, molecules and protostars. |
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