The Origin of Natural Gas on Earth

Vincent J. Curtis

23 July 2026

 The planet earth is the product of a supernova.  This supernova occurred 5 billion or more years ago, and some of the products of that supernova found their way into this solar system some time around 4.6 billion years ago.

Before this solar system was born, somewhere in the Milky Way galaxy, a star of the category ‘blue giant’ formed. These stars are fifty to one hundred times the mass of the sun, and it is necessary that this kind of star be the origin of the matter on earth.  These stars have short lifespans as stars go, perhaps as short at 30 million years. Their immense gravity causes them to burn fuel at a gigantic rate.  This star would have begun its life composited entirely of hydrogen, which, under the pressure of gravity begin the process of atomic fusion into helium. Before the hydrogen is exhausted, hydrogen and helium begin fusing into the element lithium. As gravity continues to crush the star’s matter under greater pressure, the temperature rises, hydrogen begins to run short, and the heavier elements themselves begin to fuse to create even heavier elements. Carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and neon are notable steps in a giant star’s life. Magnesium is produced by fusing two carbons.  In the more massive stars, silicon, the product of fusing carbon and oxygen, becomes notable. In the most massive stars, nuclear fusion can continue under increasing pressure and temperature right up to the creation of iron, the product of fusing magnesium and silicon.

When these massive stars begin producing iron, the end is near; iron production may last only a couple hundred years, according to current theory. But iron is the limit. A star can gain energy by fusing elements into iron, but heavier than iron is endothermic; that means that more energy is absorbed than is released by fusing nuclei into elements heavier than iron, such as nickel.

At the end, the star simply can’t produce enough heat to resist the pull of gravity, and it collapses.  In that collapse a massive amount of energy is released all at once and results a supernova. What is left of the star after a supernova could be a dwarf star, a neutron star, a black hole, or even nothing at all.  Unimaginatively massive amounts of material are blasted into space.

In the explosion of a hydrogen bomb, it is said that all the elements capable of being formed are formed momentarily, perhaps a few microseconds. Something similar but on an incomparably greater scale must happen in a supernova, and elements heavier than iron are formed, right up to uranium at least.

The products of that supernova streamed out into space, cooling as they went.  The earth’s core is composed of a massive chunk of hot iron and some nickel.  In the earth’s crust is found massive amounts of silicon and oxygen, along with calcium, magnesium, and aluminum. There are also ore deposits of many heavy metals too, including lead and gold, right up to the heaviest known naturally occurring element, uranium.  On the surface of the earth is a massive amount of water, a compound of oxygen and hydrogen. The atmosphere is composed of nitrogen and oxygen, along with traces of argon and carbon dioxide.  All of these elements are the products of the atomic fusion processes that occur in massive stars. The massive chunk of hot iron that forms the earth’s core points to the supernova of a massive star, a blue giant, and the elements heavier than iron, right up to uranium in the earth’s crust, point to a supernova also.

On Titan, a moon of Saturn, rivers, lakes, and seas of liquid methane, CH4, and ethane, C2H6, the primary components of natural gas, were discovered.  Titan has a nitrogen atmosphere and water in its crust. The massive amount of methane and ethane on Titan cannot be biological in origin. So, how could they have been created?

They must have been created by the explosion of a star, perhaps the same explosion the debris of which formed the earth.  The creation of carbon is a major step in the lifespan of a star, and a star never runs out of hydrogen.  In the final explosion of this star, the carbon and hydrogen mixed, and when the streams of material shooting out into space cooled enough, the two elements must have combined together chemically to form methane and ethane.  The amount of material expelled from an exploding star is massive compared to the amount of methane and ethane found on Titan, but for Titan the amount was huge.  Everything found on earth is miniscule compared to a star a hundred times more massive than the sun, but it is sufficient to form a small planet like earth.  And this must be so for the earth to be composed as it is, with a hot iron core, and of the elements that it is.

Methane can certainly be formed by biological action, but deposits of natural gas are found in the earth’s crust as deep as 10,000 m down. Ordinary tectonic action would not be able to form biological methane at depths so deep.  In addition, on the ocean floor is found a compound called methane hydrate, a compound of water and methane.  The nature and location of this material make biological origin unlikely, but a raining down from space of methane and water could explain it.

From the massive amounts of methane and ethane on Titan, one is drawn to the conclusion that they have to be the product of an exploded star, for biological action simply can’t explain it.  Hence, too, on earth some at least of this planet’s deposits of natural gas might have come from an exploded star.

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