Our Bodies and The Stars

I've briefly talked about this concept in my blog previously. You can find it here.

“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.” ~ Carl Sagan

Human beings are made up of a number of elements. We are carbon-based creatures. Our blood contains iron, and calcium is stored in our bones. Hydrogen and water are present in our bodies because we are two-thirds water. But where did these elements come from originally? How did they get into our bodies, into plants and animals, and into the Earth?

Billions of years ago, the result of the Big Bang were only two elements -- hydrogen and helium. Massive balls of these two elements eventually clashed together and formed stars; stars which were about 50 times bigger than our Sun.

In the centre of these stars, there was high amounts of temperature and density which resulted in fusion. So, they were able to burn and create new elements. These first stars died young and as a result, they went supernova and exploded out everywhere expelling the new elements they had earlier produced.

Now, with the help of not only hydrogen and helium, but also with the new elements, the next generation of stars was created. Another nuclear fusion, another batch of newer, heavier elements, like carbon, were created and so on.

And so the elements inside of us, like carbon, iron, oxygen, calcium and the elements we find in the Earth, like zinc, magnesium, gold and silver were all literally forged inside of a dying star billions of years before.

Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another. This means that there is a constant amount of mass in the universe that cannot be changed. Every part of the universe and every bit of energy inside us, are made of the same thing and every particle will go on to be a part of something else.

We know that the universe is vast and is infinite times greater in comparison to humans. And yet, this hypothesis allows us to believe that we are connected to the stars in our sky. This knowledge helps us change our perspective of how we live, and helps us feel less alone. And the knowledge that every part of us now was once a part of something else, reminds us that we hold within us this history and magic of the universe.