• Question: Is the periodic table for all elements or just ones on Earth, so if we discovered another planet, would it have the same-ish elements as Earth or completely different?

    Asked by taraiscool to Amy, Grant, Martin, Shawn, Usman on 13 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Martin Archer

      Martin Archer answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      The periodic table is all the elements that we know about and it is universal. In fact we know that the same elements exist elsewhere by comparing the light from the Sun with that from the stars.
      That’s an image of the light from the Sun on the left and you see a load of dark lines, these are the colours of light that Hydrogen and Helium like to absorb (what the Sun in made of). Looking at distant stars on the right we see the similar dark bands telling us that all stars are made of the same stuff. The reason for the shift in colour is because the stars are moving away from us because of the Big Bang.

      So we know what the building blocks of the Universe are, but under different conditions like on another planet, they could join together in ways we’ve never seen. In fact even just looking at our solar system we see amazing molecules and compounds that don’t naturally occur on Earth.

    • Photo: Grant Kennedy

      Grant Kennedy answered on 13 Mar 2013:

      So the cool thing is that if aliens did some chemistry and physics and figured out what all the elements they know of are made up from, they’d come up with the same answer as we did. It seems a bit unlikely that they’d make a periodic table that looks just like our one, but the basic content would be exactly the same!
      g

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