Are You A Star Gazer?
You’re essentially looking into yourself. It’s 100% true, we are made of stardust. Nearly all the elements in the human body were made in a star and many have come through several supernovas. (1st Picture)
The hydrogen in your body, present in every molecule of water, came from the Big Bang. There are no other appreciable sources of hydrogen in the universe. The carbon in our body was made by nuclear fusion in the interior of stars, as was the oxygen. Much of the iron in your body was made during supernovas of stars that occurred long ago and far away. The gold in your jewelry was likely made from neutron stars during collisions that may have been visible as short-duration gamma-ray bursts or gravitational wave events. Elements like phosphorus and copper are present in our bodies in only small amounts but are essential to the functioning of all known life.
The periodic table is color coded to indicate our best guess as to the nuclear origin of all known elements. The sites of nuclear creation of some elements such as copper, are not really well known and are continuing topics of observational and computational research.
The Whale Galaxy, lies only 25 million light-years away in the well-trained northern constellation Canes Venatici.
Last picture...our own galaxy!
Everytime I look up I remember just how small we are.
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