why is hydrogen the most abundent element in our solar system and the second most abundent element is helium?
Hydrogen and helium were both created in the big bang, so they are the most abundant elements in the universe. The other elements were mostly made inside stars.
Hydrogen is the simplest element. It is the base of the element chart. As James R. says, they are the most abundant (hydrogen and helium).
What they said, and as I understand it, correct me if I'm wrong, but stars fuse protium(hydrogen) into helium until there's no hydrogen left. Them they turn heliom into lithuim, etc. Most stars don't eject enough of the heavier elements to make a difference.
The thing is Gifted, that after the Big Bang, there wasn't any matter in the form of elements until the mass had cooled enough. Overwhelmingly, the mass turned to hydrogen and helium for the bulk of matter. The first stars where made from these elements. Supernovea are responcible for the biggest chunk, for the denser elements that are now in the universe (those beyond iron). Todays stars are different than the early ones and spectrograph readings show that stars today contain more denser elements than what was available to the first stars.
Present theory is that ALL elements other than hydrogen were and are created inside stars. We ourselves are truly children of the stars as every atom that makes us up was produced in some star. The real question is: why is it so easy for berylium-8 to accept an alpha particle and change to carbon-12 but so hard for carbon-12 to accept an alpha particle and change to oxygen-16. It's a good thing this is so or there wouldn't be enough carbon around to build living things with and we wouldn't be here to discuss this phenomenon. (P.S. If "you" are going to argue this is proof of god, then why does god have to jump throught hoops like this instead of just making is so in the first place!)
