What provided the heavier elements like silicon, iron, oxygen, and carbon found in the solar nebula?
Recycled remnants of earlier cosmic generations
The raw material of the solar nebula was not composed solely of the lightest elements, hydrogen and helium, which dominated the early universe. Instead, the nebula was enriched with heavier elements—referred to by astronomers as 'metals'—such as silicon, iron, oxygen, and carbon. These elements were created deep within the nuclear furnaces of long-dead, massive stars. When these older stars met their end in supernova explosions, they violently scattered these newly synthesized, complex materials across the interstellar medium, seeding the material from which our own solar system would eventually form. The specific distribution of these recycled components was vital in determining the chemical makeup of the resulting planets.
