i don't know nothin

https://www.reddit.com/r/cursed_chemistry/comments/jl80rx/dont_come_to_the_ism/

shit gets weird when there's no other atoms in throwing distance and you're at like 10 kelvin

The vast majority of the elements created in the Big Bang were hydrogen and helium, so it can be presumed that the oldest stars, which formed shortly after the Big Bang, are composed of mostly hydrogen and helium, and are thus “metal-poor”.

Elements heavier than helium are primarily created in the cores of stars through nuclear fusion and are then dispersed throughout the universe when those stars die. Younger stars then recycle those heavier elements, and are known as “metal-rich” because they were created after the universe was filled with those heavier-than-helium elements, which are all called “metals” for the sake of convenience.

These “metals” show up as absorption lines in stellar spectra, so the presence of these metals, or “metallicity”, is a good way to determine the age of a star or star cluster by looking at its spectra.

Astronomers also just like to call heavier-than-helium elements metals because it pisses off chemists.

FD: We can see the cat. Do you have an ETA on animal control?

Dispatch: Twenty minutes.

FD: Alright, we think we can get the cat.

Dispatch: Copy, we'll let animal control know.

FD several minutes later: We've got the cat.

Dispatch: Copy, do you still want--

FD, interrupting: Update, the cat DOES NOT like us.

Dispatch: ...so you do still want animal control, then?"

FD: Yes. Tell them the cat is in the engine.

Dispatch: ...are you also in the engine?

Gustave Doré (1832–1883), “The Gnarled Monster”

illustration from “The Days of Chivalry; Or, The Legend of Croquemitaine” by Ernest L’Épine (as Quatrelles), 1866

Shes just a fucking baby