Hydrogen, the Element of the Universe

Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe. Stars use hydrogen their nuclear fusion process. Nebulae consists of large amounts of hydrogen that allow young stars to form.

Stars like the sun, produce energy through nuclear fusion, where hydrogen atoms are fused together to create products such as neutrons and helium

The Mystic Mountain in the Great Carina Nebulae (NGC 3372). This nebula is filled with hydrogen, just like the rest of the other nebulae.

The hydrogen atom consists of a proton and an electron which are bound together. The proton has a negative charge while the electron has a positive charge. Because they have different charges, the proton and electron constantly interact and stay with each other.

However, the electron can escape. If a electron escapes from the proton. the atom is ionized. In astronomy the former type of ionization is much more common. It is easy to visualize that the electron orbits the proton, most of use visualize a planet (electron) revolving around the sun (proton). However, the electron exists as a cloud orbiting around the nucleus. The density of this cloud is the strongest in the center, and it thins out.

The brighter/denser areas is where the electron is most likely found orbiting

The amount of energy in a electron determines how far away the electron is from the proton. Electrons can only have a certain amount of energy for each orbital state. Each orbital state has a specific range of stored energy. The lowest energy an electron can have is called the ground state. The ground state is the closest orbital to the proton.  When the electron has higher energy than this lowest energy, it is excited, and It moves out, into the next orbital state (ie 1st, 2nd, 3rd Excited state orbital). 

These states of hydrogen are quantized. The electron in hydrogen can only have a certain amount of energy stored. These are called hydrogen's energy levels. The different energy levels are denoted by the quantum number n. For example, electrons with a high n (100) are weakly bound.

A hydrogen electron with a high energy level can be striped or ionized with energy called ionization energy. The energy levels are usually referred as being negative quantities. 

A hydrogen atom with excess energy is said to be excited. Two primary ways to excite an atom are through absorbing light and collisions. When two atoms collide energy is exchanged. Sometimes the energy is used to excite an electron from a lower energy level to a higher energy level.  The amount of collisions and how energetic their collisions are will depend on how tightly the hydrogen atoms are spaced and their average temperature.

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This was a much more tougher lab than the others. This is so because I have not yet taken chemistry yet, but the Hydrogen Atom simulator really helped me visualize how energy such as Lyman, Balmer, and Paschen series of energy affected the hydrogen atom's electron. I learned that as the electron gets farther away from the proton, the less energy the electron can absorb. Much more energy levels can cause the electron to move or excite and ionize the electron. As I was conducting this lab, I had one major question, how do astronomers use energy levels to study such distant objects like galaxies? Another minor question was that what is the significance of the Lyman, Balmer, and Paschen series of energy, and what is their significance to astronomy?