What would have been the minimum time from the Big Bang ...?

Question

to the production of heavy elements necessary for life. The first stars formed how long after the Big Bang? Then it would have been a further stellar generation, right?

So, how long would that be? Maybe 5-6 billion years?

solidstate: you have not the slightest clue what you're talking about. Go back to the Teletubbies discussion on TV

Answer 1

The lightest elements (hydrogen, helium, deuterium, lithium) were produced in the Big Bang nucleosynthesis. According to the Big Bang theory, the temperatures in the early universe were so high that fusion reactions could take place. This resulted in the formation of light elements: hydrogen, deuterium, helium (two isotopes), lithium and trace amounts of beryllium.

Nuclear fusion in stars converts hydrogen into helium in all stars. In stars less massive than the Sun, this is the only reaction that takes place. In stars more massive than the Sun (but less massive than about 8 solar masses), further reactions that convert helium to carbon and oxygen take place in succesive stages of stellar evolution. In the very massive stars, the reaction chain continues to produce elements like silicon upto iron.

Elements higher than iron cannot be formed through fusion as one has to supply energy for the reaction to take place. However, we do see elements higher than iron around us. So how did these elements form? The answer is supernovae. In a supernova explosion, neutron capture reactions take place (this is not fusion), leading to the formation of heavy elements. This is the reason why it is said that most of the stuff that we see around us come from stars and supernovae (the heavy elements part). If you go into technical details, then there are two processes of neutron capture called rapid process (r-process) and the slow process (s-process), and these lead to formation of different elements.

For more information check http://www.astro.ucla.edu/~wright/BBNS.html

Answer 2

0 years.

if you study the earth, movements of the stars, and other signs of aging, you can see that the universe is relatively young (in cosmic years) and is only about 10,000 years old at the most. if our sun was in fact 5-6 billion years old (on the low side), it wouldnt be the yellow dwarf that it is today. in fact, it would be a red giant or larger...

i would encourage you to do some objective research into the age of the cosmos...you'd be suprised what you come up with.

-p