"The supernova explosion is able to produce some of the very rare elements heavier than iron, the zinc, the gold, the platinum, the silver. These things are ejected into the cosmos, having produced them in these very special conditions of an exploded star.
The very atoms of which we are made, the oxygen that we breathe, the calcium in our bones, the iron in our red blood cells, were produced billions of years ago in stars, specifically in dying stars, and these dying stars ejected these elements into the cosmos, making them available for raw material, for the production of new stars, planets, and ultimately, life.
We are stardust, or rather less romantically, nuclear waste.
In a way, the ancients were right. The stars ARE like gods. They are the creators of us.
To make our Earth, several hundred generations of stars needed to come and go.
Stars born from collapsing clouds of dust and gas.
Bursting into life, to shine for millions or billions of years.
Bloating in old age to become Red Giants.
Their cores contracting into White Dwarfs.
The most massive ones exploding as supernovae, flinging the elements they've created out into space to form the materials for the next generation of stars."
...
The evolving understanding of the universe inevitably lead us to a whole new set of philosophical thinkings, to reconsider what is the meaning, the point of all the petty struggles and obsessions of our ephemeral existence on the world. What if we come from a different place than we thought, and what if we, not only as a species on earth, but also as life per se, will extinguish in a more definitive way than we assumed, with nothing but a stir in the universe? What changes would that bring to our lives, and more importantly, to our perspectives and views of our life, of how we should lead our lives?
HD
