Science Questions

Are we stardust?

Are we all parts of stars? Jordana Streeter, Second Life

Yes, basically.  The Big Bang produced hydrogen, helium, and as we mentioned earlier, a little bit of lithium.  But most of the other elements, in fact all the other elements, had to be made somewhere, and the answer is they were all made in stars.  And stars used fusion to combine a nuclear synthesis and supernova explosions to combine small elements to make bigger and bigger elements.  And so, all of the elements that make your body today were made in the birth, growth, and death of stars that lived billions of years before you did.  Isn’t that amazing? 

November 2009