“We’re made of star stuff.”
“We’re made of star stuff.” Carl Sagan, our country’s beloved astronomer often said this. But he wasn’t referring to the heights we might reach in a career. He was actually making a reference to the elements in our universe, those on the periodic table, those that resulted from the BIG BANG and now form part of us. Julia Rosen writes in her piece: “The Periodic Table’s Original Place Setting”, that since the invention of the periodic table some 150 years ago this month, “…scientists have worked to fill in the rows of elements and make sense of their properties” and “…scouring the cosmos to figure out where all 118 elements came from.”
Their conclusion: “…every element on Earth–except for a few made recently by humans–was inherited from the nebula that gave birth to our solar system 4.5 billions years ago.”
That includes the iron in our skyscrapers, the silicon in our computers, the gold in our jewelry, and THE CALCIUM IN OUR BONES.
STAR STUFF (If you skip the science, make sure to read the poetry at the end.)
It’s a nice thought, that we are made of star stuff, but unlike the universe we have an expiration date. The definition of infinity is: Limitless or endless in space, extent, or size; impossible to measure or calculate.
But in our world, more and more things feel finite. Things will end. Lives will end. Things won’t stay the same. Maybe that’s because of the rapid changes in our culture. With social media and almost everyone owning a phone and having access to so much information, you have to be a SUPER STAR to stay in the limelight, to keep up. You have to outshine everyone else in your words, actions and ideas. You have to read, watch, imbibe everything you can. Being quiet probably won’t work. Or it will at a level that may still be acceptable–which I see as a good thing.
But having just written those sentences, I find so much irony in my word choices: SUPER STAR, LIMELIGHT, OUTSHINE.
And if you don’t mind my upfront admission: I reject referring to men and women whose occupation is ACTING as stars. They are ACTORS. They might be made of some starry stuff–but so are we. Everyone is–according to science and Carl Sagan.
SO WHERE ARE WE IN THE UNIVERSE?
Julia Rosen writes in her piece that within fifteen minutes of the BIG BANG, atoms of hydrogen (which on the Periodic Table is atomic number one) coalesced out the cloud of newborn particles as it expanded and cooled. Some expanded and cooled to make helium (atomic number two) And get this:
THESE TWO ELEMENTS MAKE UP 98% of the universe and are the primary ingredients in stars. And the very first stars formed about 100 million years after the BIG BANG. If you want to learn more about how the next elements were formed ie atomic number 6 which is carbon, atomic number 8 which is oxygen read here .
A FEW FACTS YOU MIGHT FIND INTERESTING (from Rosen’s article)
It is now 13.8 billion years after the BIG BANG. Stars have converted about 2% of the universe’s hydrogen and helium into other elements.
Platinum (atomic number 78) is a million times more rare that iron because neutron star mergers don’t happen very often. (That’s why precious metals are precious.)
The presence of elements such as carbon and oxygen helped cool corners of the galaxy so that smaller stars like the sun could form.
The appearance of metals allowed solar systems to emerge from the discs of gas and dust that swirled around these stars.
The increasing ratio of iron to elements such as oxygen also increased the chances of forming rocky planets with large cores, like Earth.
As the universe ages, its elements will get heavier, star formations will cease, and its composition will stop changing. How much hydrogen will be left?
But the universe will still exist in a sense, since all elements are really just rearrangements of the hydrogen atoms that formed in the first few minutes after the Big Bang. They’ve been there ever since, in one element or another, Rosen writes. “Some are here on Earth, where they make up everything. Including us.”
MORE ON STAR STUFF
Neil de Grasse Tyson, an astrophysicist famous for his writing and his wild ties, has knowledge and poetic skill. So he gets the last word for this post:
“There is a fundamental reason why we look at the sky with wonder and longing—for the same reason that we stand, hour after hour, gazing at the distant swell of the open ocean. There is something like an ancient wisdom, encoded and tucked away in our DNA, that knows its point of origin as surely as a salmon knows its creek. Intellectually, we may not want to return there, but the genes know, and long for their origins—their home in the salty depths. But if the seas are our immediate source, the penultimate source is certainly the heavens…
The spectacular truth is—and this is something that your DNA has known all along—the very atoms of your body—the iron, calcium, phosphorus, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and on and on—were initially forged in long-dead stars. This is why, when you stand outside under a moonless, country sky, you feel some ineffable tugging at your innards. We are star stuff. Keep looking up.”
Photo Credits: LA TIMES, Creative by Nature
(Visited 9 times, 1 visits today)
