In our time, it is difficult to find a place where thousands of stars can be seen in the sky at night. But still, probably, somewhere it can still be done. And if someone is lucky enough to be in such places, go outside at night, raise your head. Here they are. The silent inhabitants of space, who beckon to themselves with the most colorful lights…

People are drawn to them. Maybe this is because humanity is the child of these incredibly distant space inhabitants? That sounds weird. But almost all the elements that make up the human body were created inside the stars. And some of these elements were born only after a series of supernova explosions. Therefore, we are only the remnants of colossal cosmic explosions. Stardust of the Universe…

Generations of stars

Astronomers believe that the universe was born between 13-14 billion years ago. That’s when the Big Bang happened. Sometime after this event, the cosmos was filled with only the simplest chemical elements-hydrogen and helium. It also contained a small amount of lithium.

The first-generation stars were formed from gas that, under the influence of gravity, compressed into very large objects. Inside which the process of thermonuclear fusion began. The first stars to form after the Big Bang were at least 50 times the size of our Sun. However, the physics of stars is such that the larger such an object is, the faster it burns its fuel.

The first stars quickly burned out. And in their depths, only a small number of chemical elements heavier than hydrogen and helium were born. Then these stars become supernovae. The process in which the star sharply increased its brightness by 4-8 orders of magnitude, and then relatively slowly faded. The explosion was accompanied by the release of the elements produced by the star, and fuel for the next generation of stars appeared in space.

But the next generation of stars could produce heavier elements. Such as carbon, magnesium, and others. Therefore, any chemical element in the human body that is heavier than iron has passed through the furnace of at least one supernova. Modern astrophysics believes that our Sun is a star of the third generation of stars in the universe. That is, almost all of the matter that it consists of has been inside other, older stars at least twice.

This process is called galactic chemical evolution. Any chemical element was once born in a star. And if you combine such elements in different combinations, you can get any kind of gases and minerals. Which, in turn, form larger objects, such as asteroids. And planets are formed from asteroids and other similar objects. And then on these planets, if the right conditions are present, life can arise. And if you’re lucky, intelligent life. The same as on our Land. That’s the long way the atoms of the human body had to go.

At the moment, most often scientists find in the composition of the studied stardust:

• silicon carbide;
• graphite;
• aluminum oxide;
• spinel;
• and other solid substances.

This process has been going on for about 13 billion years. And our Solar system is thought to have formed just 4.5 billion years ago. Therefore, the age of any atom of the human body is billions of years. Our bodies, and everything we see around us – is stardust left over from the explosions of ancient supernovae.

Is there stardust inside us?

So, most of the elements of our bodies were formed in the stars. This process lasted for billions of years. And he demanded that many star lives be sacrificed. It is possible that some of the hydrogen in our body and lithium were born at the time of the Big Bang.

All this speaks of the deep kinship of the stars and all life on earth. Therefore, a person is fascinated by the stars, so he wants to look at them and feels better when he does it. Since ancient times, people have treated the stars in this way, even when they did not know their colossal significance for all life on Earth. People named the stars. Names of stars in the sky have certain meanings that were given by people. Some names were given to the stars already closer to our time, they were named after the people who discovered them or in honor of astronauts.

Now you can buy stars, that is, literally pay a certain amount and get a certificate with the coordinates and the chosen name for the star. This opportunity appeared not so long ago and it may seem that this is quite a long legal process. In fact, this process is well regulated, so you can get a certificate in the shortest possible time.

Why do they do this? Mostly to surprise your loved one with an original gift. People buy stars and call them by the name of a loved one or a double name. This is a very romantic and meaningful gift, because the stars and even stardust played a great role in the formation of planets and life.

Thus, it is worth remembering about the star dust, about the stars. You need to look at the sky more often. Perhaps this will give a person inner spiritual and physical strength, as it gave our ancestors, who lived in more difficult conditions.