The Chemical-Nuclear-Astronomical Relationship

This is being reposted because more has been added to it.

I have noticed a simple relationship between chemistry, nuclear reactions and astronomical bodies that I have never seen documented.

CHEMICAL AND NUCLEAR ENERGY

First, let's review the difference between chemical and nuclear energy. A material, such as wood, has bonds between the atoms holding it together. These bonds involve the electrons in orbit around the atomic nuclei in the material. Generally, organic substances are held together by so-called covalent bonds, in which neighboring atoms share electrons.

Metals are also held together by shared electrons among a group of atoms. This is why metals tend to conduct electricity, these loose electrons can be made to flow in one direction by the application of a voltage pressure to the metal. Non-metallic inorganic materials are held together by simple ionic bonds because one atom loses an electron to a neighboring atom.

Since the positive charges in the atomic nucleus are usually balanced by the negative charges in the electrons orbitting the nucleus, this means that the losing atom becomes positively charged and the gaining atom, negatively charged. Thus, the two atoms attract each other and are bound together.

These types of inter-atomic bond are known as chemical bonds because they involve only the electrons in orbit around the nuclei of atoms and not the nuclei themselves. These chemical bonds contain energy. If the bond is somehow broken, such as by heat, the energy that was in the bond holding the atoms together is released, also in the form of heat, which causes still more bonds to be broken and to release their energy. This is how burning takes place, if the breaking of the bond releases more energy than it takes to break it so that the process is self-sustaining.

In chemical reactions, the nuclei of the atoms are not affected at all. However, the positively charged nuclei of atoms also contain energy, in fact far more energy than the chemical bonds. The positively-charged protons in an atomic nucleus are held together by a powerful so-called "binding energy".

If the nucleus can be split, such as by a fast-moving neutron, this tremendous binding energy is released in the form of heat. This is the basis of nuclear fission in atomic bombs and reactors. Just as in simple burning, the released energy and neutrons from a split nuclei go on to split other nuclei and sustain the reaction.

There is another nuclear process, fusion, which operates by crushing together two or more small atoms to form a larger atom but where there is less binding energy required than in the smaller atoms together. Thus, the extra binding energy is released. This is how stars operate. Energy is released by both burning, a chemical process, and nuclear fusion. As a general rule, the energy from fusion is about a billion times that from chemical processes.

SPHERIZATION IN ASTRONOMICAL BODIES

Now, consider the structure of an object such as a rock. The atoms in the rock are held together by chemical bonds, forming the rock's structure. The rock also has gravity, but in a small rock or boulder, this internal gravity is insignificant in determining the structure of the rock.

Gravity is a very weak force compared with the other basic forces of nature but it is cumulative, meaning that it adds up as mass accumulates. If we begin adding matter to the rock, eventually we reach a point in which it's gravity becomes more important in the rock's structure than the chemical bonds between atoms. At this point, the rock and the matter that has been added to it begin to take the shape of a sphere.

This is because a sphere is the geometric shape in three dimensions requiring the least energy to maintain. Most of the asteroids in the solar system orbitting between Mars and Jupiter are not spherical in shape. But the largest asteroids, such as Ceres and Vesta, are spherical or close to it. And, of course, larger bodies such as the earth, moon and, sun are inevitably spherical in shape. As a general rule, there is no body to be seen a thousand kilometers or more in diameter that is not spherical in shape.

The shape of such astronomical bodies reveals the most important factor in it's structure. If chemical bonds between atoms predominate, the shape will be non-spherical. When there is enough matter together so that gravity becomes more important than the chemical structural bonds, the shape will become spherical.

THE FUSION THRESHOLD

Now suppose we keep adding still more matter to our now-spherical body in space. Let's keep adding millions and millions of times the matter it had when it first took on a spherical shape. As we add more and more mass, the internal gravity of the body keeps building and building, because remember that gravity is cumulative. Eventually something will happen, the body will begin to glow with a light of it's own. A star has been born.

The body became a sphere when the cumulative gravity was strong enough to become more important than the chemical structural bonds in forming the body's structure. The process of nuclear fusion begins and forms a star when the internal gravity of the body becomes so strong that it overpowers the electromagnetic force in the atoms at the center of the star and crushes them together to form larger atoms out of smaller ones. But the new larger atom contains less internal energy than the total of the smaller atoms that were crunched together to form it. This releases binding energy in the form of heat and light to continue the process and form a star.

THE CHEMICAL-NUCLEAR-ASTRONOMICAL RELATIONSHIP

What I am pointing out in this relationship is that the order of magnitude in the energy obtained from nuclear, as opposed to chemical fuels is roughly the same as the order of magnitude between the amount of mass necessary to reach the spherization threshold to the amount of mass necessary to reach the fusion threshold and create a star. I have never before seen this pointed out and it makes the different branches of science seem much more inter-connected than ever before.

It is an example of what I refer to as "The Lowest Information Point" because reusing information, the two ratios, brings about a lower total information state. The concept of "The Lowest Information Point" is detailed in the compound posting on this blog by that name.

LIGHTNING

You have probably noticed that there is more lightning in the summer than in the winter. Heat produces lightning in an atmosphere by causing updrafts when warmed air rises. For every updraft there must be a corresponding downdraft. A varied surface on a planet causes the air above it to heat unevenly. Air rises above areas that are more heated, an updraft, and sinks over areas that are lesser heated, a downdraft.

Glider pilots know that those fluffy cumulus clouds are formed by updrafts and staying under one will keep them aloft.

If an updraft and downdraft happen to be next to each other the collisions between atoms moving upward and those moving downward knock electrons out of the outermost orbitals of the atoms. In one place, either a cloud or the ground, an excess of electrons builds up. In another place a shortage of electrons builds up. The place with an excess of electrons has a negative charge and the place with the shortage has a positive charge.

Eventually a discharge of electricity occurs that corrects the imbalance. This discharge is known as lighting. We think of lightning as going from a cloud to the ground but sometimes it goes from the ground to the cloud, and sometimes between two clouds.

But the updrafts that cause lightning are brought about by heat. It is easy to see that heat causes lightning by the fact that there is much more lightning in the summer than in the winter.

Lightning, like chemical processes, involves electrons but not the nucleus and what I want to add here is basically that the temperature above absolute zero at which lightning occurs, relative to the far higher temperature at which nuclear fusion occurs, which typically is millions of degrees, is approximately equal to the energy in chemical processes, relative to the much higher energy in nuclear processes. The ratios are approximately the same.

Absolute Zero is the coldest possible temperature because heat consists of the motion of atoms or molecules and Absolute Zero is the temperature at which all such motion ceases. Heat energy is the kinetic energy of the atoms and molecules. Chemical formula involving heat must measure by this absolute scale of temperature.

This concept is complicated by the fact that heat isn't the only factor that causes lightning. Any motion that causes friction between atmospheric atoms and molecules moving in opposite directions will contribute to lightning. There is lightning on other planets and Jupiter is especially known for it's lightning displays, even though it is much colder than earth.

But Jupiter is not only much larger than earth, it also spins much faster. This means that there is far greater centrifugal force of rotation, known as Coriolis Force, on Jupiter than on earth. We could thus conclude that there is a certain energy level that is necessary to create lightning but by no means does that energy all have to be in the form of heat. But for our purpose here we can suppose that there is an energy threshold necessary to create lightning, and that is what I mean even if the energy is not all in the form of heat so that it can conveniently be expressed as temperature.

I think we can safely say that the energy required to bring about lightning, relative to the energy required to bring about nuclear fusion, is essentially equal to the energy typically involved in chemical reactions, relative to the energy involved in nuclear reactions, which is essentially equal to the mass of matter in space necessary to bring about spherization, relative to the mass necessary to overcome the electron repulsion between atoms and initiate the nuclear fusion of a star.