What is the origin of the gaseous matter comprising the stars and galaxies?
Surely something cannot be created out of nothing. I could write a book-length story about this question. The story will contain many definite truths. It will have a lot of extrapolation and it might still leave out several big holes. Let me begin by first stating some things we now understand rather well. We have found out that the familiar world around us is made up of less than one hundred elements. Hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, iron, carbon, copper, zinc etc right up to uranium represent examples of elements. Elements are defined through the number of protons in their nuclei. This we learnt later. First we learnt to recognise them through their chemical properties. It is amazing that wherever we look, the earth, the moon, the stars or vast interstellar and intergalactic spaces, the same and only the same limited numbers of elements are found. The richness we see on our planet is all derived from the multitude of ways in which these elements combine. This includes oceans, rocks, sand,
