How silicon was born
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The abundance of silicon in the Big Bang is lower than that of hydrogen, helium, oxygen, neon, nitrogen, and carbon. Small silicon is believed to be a cosmic product absorbed by alpha particles at a temperature of about 109k, and is composed of the nucleus of carbon-12, oxygen-16 and neon-20. The energy of the particles that form small silicon nuclei is about 8.4 million electron volts (MeV) per nucleon (proton or neutron). The iron nucleus has a maximum of about 8.7 million electron volts, and its atomic mass is almost twice that of small silicon. This shows the relative stability of small silicon nuclei.
