January 14, 2011

It is extremely plausible; one could even say certain, that ninety of the ninety-two natural elements present on our planet were formed in a dead star. The dead star would have had existed billions of years ago (perhaps close to eight billion?...I am not certain). Stars are mostly composed of the elements hydrogen and helium, which combined make up 99.9% of all the matter in the universe. Hydrogen and helium molecules collide together to create pure nuclear energy inside a star. Since helium is slightly heavy than hydrogen, the helium molecules sink to the center of the star and heat up to form new elements, such as carbon and iron, which are essential building blocks for life on earth. The iron in this "dead" pre-historic star would have become so dense that the star would have burst and would have created a supernova, spitting all of the matter out into the universe for a new star, our sun, to be formed. It is through this explosion that our solar system was made possible. I marvel at the fact that humans, all of us, are simply star dust. You, I, and everyone you have known are simply the matter recycled from a dead star.