Hydrogen Story

Hi I’m a Hydrogen Atom. I was made in this big explosion called the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago. My first memory is of soaring through space and feeling awesome.The Big Bang was this weird Anomaly that was a ball of infinite mass, gravity, and energy going boom. All these atoms scattered around the universe unevenly and then they started clumping up. I clumped up with all my friends and we became this big glowy star. On a really hot day, some of my friends started smashing into each other. We thought they died but then two of the atoms who smashed into each other became one big helium atom. My birthing was very interesting and significant to the universe. It was interesting because we came out of nowhere and it was significant because without all of the atoms nothing would be here.

Shortly after I emerged from the Big Bang, I looked like a big positively charged ball called a proton, with a little tiny negatively charged ball going around my proton in a little cloud called the electron cloud. My proton is in the center of the atom which is called the nucleus. I am different from some of my friends who became helium atoms because they have a thing called a neutron and I do not. A neutron has a neutral charge. I am interesting and important because all other stable atoms that will ever exist derive from me! I am very fit. I have a an atomic mass of 1.008 and a atomic number of 1. If another hydrogen atom smashes into me, I become a helium atom, like some of my friends. Usually when atoms evolve into the next form of atom, they gain a proton, neutron, and electron, but this is not always the case.

Me and my friends became a star early, but other atoms hadn’t even started to form one. A star is formed when a gravity pulls together the ingredients needed. A gas clump breaks off of a molecular cloud and forms a rotating disk. The rotating disk attracts more gas which then turns the rotating disk into a protostar. Infalling matter increase the protostars by a factor of ten. Infall stops when the star begins thermonuclear fusion and produces a stellar wind. A galaxy is formed when many stars are near each other. A galaxy is a cosmic collection of planets and stars. When the star runs out of nuclear fuel some of its mass starts to run into its core when the core gets so heavy that it can’t withstand its own gravitational force the core collapses into a giant explosion called a supernova. A supernova can form heavier elements than hydrogen and helium.

Planets are usually big asteroids orbiting the sun. Gravity pulls them into a orbit. An orbit means that the planet is pulled into a circle around the sun that is hard to leave. Some planets have little moons circling around them. A solar system is a collection of planets and stars. Stars can create heavier elements when they explode into a supernova such as iron. Me and my friends star exploded one day and I became iron.

THE END