A few seconds/minutes after the Big Bang, what atoms formed?

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The question asks about which atoms formed a few seconds to minutes after the Big Bang, during the era of Big Bang nucleosynthesis.
Option 1: 'Hydrogen, Oxygen and Iron' — This is incorrect because oxygen and iron did not form in the first few minutes after the Big Bang. Those heavier elements are produced much later in stars and supernovae, not in the primordial nucleosynthesis epoch.
Option 2: 'Hydrogen, Oxygen and Carbon' — Again, oxygen and carbon are not produced in the initial nucleosynthesis phase. The primordial plasma mainly created the lightest elements, with oxygen and carbon coming from stellar fusion processes later on.
Option 3: 'Hydrogen, Helium and Lithium' — This is the correct set of light elements formed during Big Bang nucleosynthesis. The early universe cooled enough for protons and neutrons to combine into helium-4, with trace amounts of deuterium and lithium-7, while hydrogen remained as protons (and some deuterium as a precursor).
Option 4: 'Lithium, Beryllium and Nitrogen' — This combination is not correct for the early universe. Beryllium and nitrogen did not form in the first minutes; lithium does appear in small amounts, but not alongside a full set including beryllium and nitrogen in this primordial epoch.
In summary, the accepted primordial abundances after the Big Bang are primarily hydrogen and helium, with a small fraction of lithium, which corresponds to option 3. The other options misstate which elements were produced during that brief, early period and rely on later stellar processes for heavier elements.

My LMS Subjects Quiz Topic 2: Creation of atoms

A few seconds/minutes after the Big Bang, what atoms formed?

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