National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Cosmic Abundances
(By James Lochner, USRA/NASA/GSFC, Greenbelt, MD)

This activity provides practice for reading and interpreting the log plot of solar system elemental abundances.

1. Refer to the chart of the solar system abundances (Figure 7).

   From the plot, determine the abundances of the following elements:
   

   1. Hydrogen

   2. Helium

   3. Aluminum

   4. Gold

   5. How much more hydrogen is there in the solar system than helium?

6. How much more hydrogen is there than aluminum?

7. How much more hydrogen is there than gold?

2. Below is a table of the various processes in the universe that create elements. Also listed are the combined abundances (relative to hydrogen) of that particular groups of elements.

   Process	Predominant elements	Combined Abundance
   Big Bang	H, He	1.10 x 1012
   Small Stars	C,N,O	1.19 x 109
   Large Stars	other elements with atomic numbers up through Fe	2.56 x 108
   Supernovae elements	with atomic numbers above Fe	1.94 x 106
   Cosmic Rays	Li, Be, B	2.68 x 103

   What are ways to illustrate or plot these data?