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American Museum of Natural History
@amnh.org

Here’s something to think about as you kick off 2025: ✨We are all stardust.✨ Every atom of oxygen in our lungs, of carbon in our muscles, of calcium in our bones, of iron in our blood—was created inside a star before Earth was born. Image: NASA Hubble Space Telescope, CC BY 2.0, flickr

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American Museum of Natural History
@amnh.org

Hydrogen and helium, the lightest elements, were produced in the Big Bang. Almost all of the other, heavier, elements were produced inside stars. In a star of intermediate mass, these elements can mix into the star’s atmosphere and be spread into space through stellar winds.

Tim Hill of Antifa, #FBPE
@tjrh.uk

Two neutron stars collided to create the heaviest of elements; the bottom half of the periodic table. The first billion years of a growing universe must have been like a fireworks display.

Scott Matte
@smatte.bsky.social

It’s a nice sentiment, and while the second paragraph is contingently true, as a dual-aspect monism idealist, I disagree with the core of the message. We are not stardust. Stardust is us.

butthugcuddlebum.bsky.social
@butthugcuddlebum.bsky.social

The stars are just us... dust up! Perhaps we are the progenitors, and as we die, we seed the astronomical bye and bye. Starry flight... when sent can go! This cat is cradle bound and to be found in the realm of the Major hound. Can is as can do as detritus dew. 🥀* Will Fly, the nescience high.

Dean C Gregory
@dcg1914.bsky.social

Just 2 understand: Do we as atoms take on different type of structure as time passes? I wud like 2 know since 1 comment below says that we drink the same water as did dinosaurs. I'm not contesting either. Bt wnt 2 understand. If we drink the same water as the dinosaurs didn't atoms change over time?

Dean C Gregory
@dcg1914.bsky.social

Thanks. Appreciate your reply. Is there an article or video that I can learn more about this? Can you, if possible, point me in the right direction please? Not a very deep study. But very interested in this topic.

Steve
@stevie49.bsky.social

I remember this commentary: Carl Sagan — 'The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.'

Simon ExX
@sizc.bsky.social

If the heavier elements were all created in a supernova explosion, how do we find billions of atoms of gold clumped together in a nugget? Why are they not widely dispersed and mixed up with other heavy elements?

Pentu14
@pentu14.bsky.social

I try hard to believe the fine, but gritty, gray dust that coats all available surfaces is star dust. Wish it were that pretty & filled with promise.

🌸Ashley🌸
@estrobiologist.bsky.social

My favorite way to see us in the grand scheme is this. We are the universe able to perceive itself. We are the stars given sentience. We are spontaneity and infinity given consciousness. The human ability to wonder and wonder and wonder is completely and utterly beautiful.

riteon
@riteon.bsky.social

We are most certainly a product of the universe, however it all works. We are universal energy. We are miraculous. I am humbled and grateful.

Canada Pain
@canadapain.bsky.social

Ironically, this isn't science - visually stunning as it is - it's awakened consciousness, and is part of moment, of every breath. We are stardust. We are the gods that don't exist.

Tem Starlite
@temstarlite.bsky.social

Whewwww the existential crisis I felt reading this. I feel so insignificant and filled with .. hesitation?? Wonder?.. when I look at the sky at night. All of the planets, and stars. It’s sometimes overwhelming how vast space is. How small we are.

Zahir Hemini
@zahirhemini.bsky.social

That is not implied. Only a potential nature of a putative deity is implied. This evidence only constrains the creation process to something significantly different to the words of Genesis, and so only discounts that particular deity image.

silverfogey.bsky.social
@silverfogey.bsky.social

Works if you remember that God revealed the secrets of creation to itinerant goat herders with no comprehension of physics, relativity, nuclear binding energy or quantum mechanics. So all we got from them was “Let there be light”.

gandalfpc.bsky.social
@gandalfpc.bsky.social

And you could see for fucking miles! Who plagiarised it all from existing Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures anyway. There is still serious debate in Judaism as to whether Earth is flat. As opposed to the ridicule Flat Earthers get elsewhere.

nelson-workman.bsky.social
@nelson-workman.bsky.social

I'll be 77 in a few weeks, and I'd agree with you except that I'm heavily interested in popcorn futures, awaiting VP Trump's return to nominal power I'm reminded of a naval officer's fitness report that was on the web years ago: "His men will follow him anywhere, but only out of curiosity."

Silva Ciminia
@silvaciminia.bsky.social

A lot of those R process elements come not only from supernova and typical star cores, but also from neutron star collisions. The energy and neutron density of these extreme events allows the production of even more R process elements and helps explain their relative abundance in the universe.

silverfogey.bsky.social
@silverfogey.bsky.social

Based on trace materials in our sun and solar system, we are third or fourth generation stardust. 3 or 4 stars lived and died thru the preceding eons. Each pulling in and using the remains of the one before. They are long gone and were so before our sun formed.

T
@pissedoff1.bsky.social

“We are stardust, we are golden. We are billion-year-old carbon. And we've got to get ourselves. Back to the garden.” CSN. Loved them in my miss spent youth😊 So many memories