we are made of star stuff

[asset189]

Bound to have been many threads on this before but have watched Carl Segan this morning talking about evolution , man returning to the stars from whence we came 5 billion years ago he uttered the now immortal phrase " we are made of star stuff" and I have to admit I had a lump in my throat at the sheer emotional enormity of this one simple statement.

What does it mean to you?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

It does mean a lot to me. It is simply amazing to realize that atoms in our body were forged in the immeasurably hot furnaces in the interior of stars, and that little, immeasurably complex clumps of star dust have become aware of this.

[Stu]

Pretty much what Michael said. The sheer improbability of something made in the centre of a star, ending up in a planetary system around another star and becoming us is quite mind boggling! I agree with your sentiment!

[John]

As per the above really. To me it seems entirely natural to have a keen interest in the Universe as we are very much part of it. It's an optomistic thought as well I feel as the stuff of which I'm made will continue on to be part of other things beyond my short lifetime.

Carl did have a knack for setting these concepts out clearly and engagingly. His "Pale blue dot" piece is also very moving I feel.

[Mr Spock]

Our particles came from the the stars and will go back to the stars. It has a kind of symmetry

Each of our particles is part of the universe so not only are we star stuff, we are the universe!

[laudropb]

It is just the sheer scale of the processes involved that amazes me.

[DaveS]

I try to drop this reality on the girls at school whenever I can (Usually when officiating in physics class). We are star dust, and we didn't even have to go to Woodstock .

Pulling the tone down you could even say we are nuclear waste .

I'll just chuck another thought in here, a slight exageration perhaps, "a star died so that we could be born" think on it and it's very humbling.

[Kropster]

I'll just chuck another thought in here, a slight exageration perhaps, "a star died so that we could be born" think on it and it's very humbling.

It's very romantic, but we need to be careful before giving stars/the universe intent.

[DaveS]

Oh, sure. No intent was implied, I was refering to the supernova that kicked our particular nebula into collapsing. As I said, a slight exageration and simllification for intent.

[Astro_Baby]

I thought it was Joni Mitchell who coined the phrase

[bejay1957]

All part of the cycle of life, but on a cosmic scale..

[m1dlj]

Might have taken this genealogy thing a bit to far, the family tree now looks like this:

[Alien 13]

Whats even stranger is that it took maybe 4 generations of stars and a supernova to make me.

Alan

[John]

Whats even stranger is that it took maybe 4 generations of stars and a supernova to make me.

Alan

Stranger still that so much more of that energy, material and time went to make 13.4 million people ....... who sat and watched cakes being baked on TV for an hour last week !

[Stu]

Stranger still that so much more of that energy, material and time went to make 13.4 million people ....... who sat and watched cakes being baked on TV for an hour last week !

......and were you one of these 13.4 million John? I think your readers have a right to know [emoji6][emoji6]

[DaveS]

I thought it was Joni Mitchell who coined the phrase

Hence my tongue-in-cheek reference to Woodstock

[DaveS]

Stranger still that so much more of that energy, material and time went to make 13.4 million people ....... who sat and watched cakes being baked on TV for an hour last week !

Guilty as charged m'lud  . Still it was a gentle and cheerful way to pass an hour.

[John]

......and were you one of these 13.4 million John? I think your readers have a right to know [emoji6][emoji6]

Nope - I was star gazing

I don't watch TV to be honest Stu. My other half watched it though so there you go !

[Mak the Night]

I miss Carl Sagan.

[Dave In Vermont]

Born in the heart of an exploding star - that explains explains what we are.

To quote Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. - "God made mud. Some of the mud stood up and saw the mud. And that was good."

Not I,

Dave

[ollypenrice]

If you're moved by the fact that our material selves were forged in stars (and not to be so moved would be pretty odd!) then Marcus Chown's The Magic Furnace - the history of our understanding of atoms - will delight you. 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Magic-Furnace-Search-Origins/dp/0099578018

Olly