True or False? scientists believe that naturally occurring elements are manufactured within Mars?

false. Mars is just a planet - i.e. just a big rock out there.





as Carl Sagan famously said ';We are all star stuff';.





we are composed of elements formed in stars, that got to us over millions of years following the supernova explosions of those stars. these elements were around when the earth formed (~4 and change billion years ago) and thus make up the earth, the things we grow and eat ...





note, the universe is *at least* ~9-10 *billion* years older than the earth is. so, a whole lot of element formation happened before the earth even started coalescing... the stuff that makes up you and me was formed in this period in stars. stars ';burn'; via fusion processes (';nucleosynthesis';) which releases nuclear binding energy as heat and light. and when these stars explode (supernovae) one can make the elements past ~Nickel.





i.e. normal-sized or huge-sized stars happily make elements up to ~Nickel throughout their lifetime. but the formation of elements heavier than ~Nickel is energetically unfavorable (the nuclear binding energy per nucleon starts to drop w/ increasing nucleon number at around that element). but if the star is big enough, its life ends in a spectacular explosion called a supernova. this process produces the elements heavier than ~Nickel.





these fly around the local neighborhood, and earth picked them up as it was forming via gravity as it coalesced...





turn the crank a ~4 billion years more - and you get you and me.





cheersTrue or False? scientists believe that naturally occurring elements are manufactured within Mars?
false. Why would there be a factory on Mars manufacturing elements?





.