[ghubbard]

What's the third most common element (in the universe)?

tl;dr: Oxygen

But it's worth reading the article to learn why.

[gpvos]

Note that the very interesting graph near the end of the article actually displays element abundance in the solar system, not in the universe. (Found that out when looking it up in Wikipedia.) The article misrepresents this!

[SquareWheel]

I also searched it up on Wiki. They have a larger version of the image, and a data source.

Link: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nucleosynthesis_perio...

[gpvos]

And the one that I actually meant: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SolarSystemAbundance...

[hashmymustache]

yada yada yada, cosmological principle

[gpvos]

The cosmological principle works when considering a large enough scale. A solar system of a particular type of star, even though that star is pretty average and unremarkable, is not really large enough.

Although the numbers are indeed not too far off.

[raverbashing]

From what we can conclude that: water is very common

(Of course, most likely not in liquid form)

[lmm]

No we can't. If it's not molecules, it's not water, and there's nothing here to indicate whether the hydrogen and oxygen are found bound together.

[raverbashing]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water#In_the_universe

While water will break down at high temperatures I would find it surprising that 1st and 3rd most common elements in the whole universe, that readily combine to form water would not result in substantial amounts of water.

It's probably like saying we shouldn't find H2 because "nothing says they are found bound together"

[jrmenon]

Actually the abundance of water was detected in some young sun-like stars:

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-06/herschel-sp...

[dannypgh]

Most atoms- and certainly most hydrogen- are in stars, no? Not exactly places where water "breaking down at high temperatures" (really, never forming) can be ignored.

[jigg4joe]

Most hydrogen (and baryonic mass in the universe) is in the interstellar/intergalactic gas clouds

[raverbashing]

Yes, I guess not even H2 is much stable in stars.

I would expect that in planet formation situations

[saalweachter]

It looks like most stars are too hot for molecular hydrogen, but some stars have a bit -- our own sun has some molecular hydrogen in sunspots:

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2013/mar/13/cold-hy...

[gpvos]

Still can't conclude it from just the data presented here.

[raverbashing]

You have to explain more than that

[weego]

You provided a conjecture based on incomplete data as fact, he stated that it's conjecture until additional data to support it is there... the burden in this situation is not on him.