Thread: The existance of copper metal

Hi Dear

I was worrying how the actual solid form of copper in the ground was made.???

I was told that copper comes from red stars in space that shoot out atoms which then turn into copper after a long time, but how do atoms become solid?.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Originally Posted by MR leon

Hi Dear

I was worrying how the actual solid form of copper in the ground was made.???

I was told that copper comes from red stars in space that shoot out atoms which then turn into copper after a long time, but how do atoms become solid?.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Wow.
Close but way off.

The natural elements were formed by Nuclear fusion taking place in stars.
As the star (Sun) fuses elements together, over millions or billions of years, it must fuse heavier and heavier elements to keep up.
When the star finally reaches a critical state in which it's exhausted its fuel, it can go supernova, spreading itself across space.
This distributes every element that was fused within into space.
As the dust re-coalesces from that nova, it can form a new system, or that material can be swept up by other passing cosmic bodies.
When a new system is formed, it contains all those elements within it, in the planets and in the star as well.

Originally Posted by Neverfly

Wow.Close but way off.

As in the inter-particle distances between atomic nuclei and their electrons?

jocular

To continue the process from where Neverfly left off: The elements are generally chemically reactive and form compound with other elements. Copper combines in a number of different ways to form a number of different minerals. IOW, the copper in the ground is not in its metallic form but as one element of a mineral. Different geological processes over time can concentrate minerals into deposits which we then mine. We then refine the mineral (or ore) with a lot of heat and some form or reducing agent which draws the other elements away from the copper.

I note that there are major industrially significant deposits of native copper. The Keweenaw Peninsula and areas in the southwestern United States are major Native copper.

Originally Posted by MR leon

Hi Dear

I was worrying how the actual solid form of copper in the ground was made.???

I was told that copper comes from red stars in space that shoot out atoms which then turn into copper after a long time, but how do atoms become solid?.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I am curious why you ask about copper specifically. Basically, every element on earth (apart from hydrogen) was formed by supernova explosions as described above.

"We are stardust."

Hi Forks

some say copper was made by red star(s) atoms so, would it be fair to say that a red star could have went into supernova collapsed on itself to make a nebula cloud which produced planet earth that collected some of its properties (copper atoms)...... or maybe the red star went into supernova shattered its properties into space in a dust/gas like form and congealed with the nebula cloud which was creating earth.? perhaps. given you believe in that hypothesis.

Volcanic rocks located throughout Arizona have left us with great copper deposits.

Copper is a metallicmineral that we find in the crust of the earth. We locate it in ore deposits. Arizona has a lot of igneousrocksThese are rocks that were molten magma. The tremendous heat and pressure within the earthproduced this magma. Some of this magma was thrust or intruded into other rocks. In addition, thegroundwater found in the rocks next to the magma was also heated. This caused a chemical reaction thatalso changed other rocks located deep within the earth. Some of these rocks have big crystals along withlittle crystals. This tells us that the big rocks cooled over a long period of time, but the little crystalscooled faster. Thus, they solidified at different rates and are called copper "porphyry" (poor-fe-ree)rocks. .The magma cooled and hardened into igneous rocks. These ore deposits can be found on the surface ofour earth as well as deep within the crust of it. The surface rocks are formed due to weathering and

erosion over time. Igneous rocks may also have other precious metals besides copper inside them.

Who Knows. can anybody forward a link or recommend a good book on this topic please.

a good intro to the topic can be found here : Formation of the High Mass Elements - as others have mentioned not just copper, but most heavier elements are formed during supernova explosions

the red colour of red giants has nothing to do with the presence or absence of copper, but merely reflects the relatively low surface temperature of this type of star

you'll notice from the link i gave you that the natural sequence in the fusion of a star is

hydrogen -> helium -> carbon -> neon -> oxygen -> silicon -> iron

at each stage the extra fusion energy prevents the star from collapsing on itself, that is, until iron has been reached and then collapse does happen, with the casting off of the outer shells of the stars atmosphere in a "rebound explosion"
that's when all other elements not part of the normal star sequence are formed

I'll check out the link

thanks marnixR and all other helpful participants......very interesting!!!!