We are literally made of dead stars
The Carl Sagan’s phrase “We are made of stardust” got me hooked. I’ve heard about it before as well but at some point i have a desire to explore it deeply, to get to the essence of his words.
The more you dive into this topic, the more details appear.
The origin of dust and gas is a moment where the concept of star matter comes into effect. A significant part of the material that later formed the Solar System consist of hydrogen and helium, the elements that have existed since the early stages of universe. However, the more complex and heavy elements such as carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, iron and others first appeared much later, approximately the hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang. At that moment hydrogen and helium started to collapsing under gravity and gave rise to the first generation of starts. The formation of elements first began to form exactly inside the stars.
There were multiple of reactions of nuclear fusion under the immense influence of pressure and temperature, light elements slowly fused into heavier ones. This is how the complexity of matter was born, forming the basis of everything around us.
When a star runs out of fuel and breaks apart, it releases all the material that was once inside it into space. This material becomes the raw material for future generations of stars, planets, and star systems. Thus, the universe works like a continuous cycle: starts are born from the remnants of previous generations, the exhaustion of their fuel, explosion and the dispersal of matter back into space – from this, new systems gradually form, and ultimately the Earth emerges. Over time, life arises from the same recycled stellar materials.
The phosphorus is also take place in our structure. For instance, iron in our blood was formed deep inside a massive star once upon a time. Then its explosion was able to outshine an entire galaxy like the Milky Way due to its power. As a result, everything we perceive as living or non-living is actually made from the remnants of long-dead starts.
“As Carl Sagan said:
The nitrogen in our DNA, calcium in our bones, iron in our blood and carbon in our apple pies was originated deep inside collapsing stars. We are made of stellar materials.”
“Lawrence Krauss:
Every atom in our body was formed from exploded star. Perhaps, the atoms of your left hand belonged to another star than those in right hand. It’s the most poetic thing i know about physics: we all are a stardust. “