“When a star explodes, it briefly (over the course of about a month or so) shines in visible light with a brightness of 10 billion stars. Happily for us, stars don't explode that often, about once per hundred years per galaxy. But we are lucky that they do, because if they didn't, we wouldn't be here. One of the most poetic facts I know about the universe is that essentially every atom in your body was once inside a star that exploded. Moreover, atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than did those in your right. We are all, literally, star children, and our bodies made of stardust.”