[gremlin]

The stars that we look up to during the night are what we once were. I just thought that I would share this completely fascinating fact.

The same science that reveals to us the vastness of the universe also tells us another story: Astronomers explain that all the elements heavier than hydrogen originated inside stars. The carbon in the ink on a page, and the silicon in glass and microchips, were created in the heart of a star, long ago, as that star shined by fusing hydrogen. The iron that carries the oxygen in your blood as you read this, was created when a star, in its dying phase, exploded.

You and I are not merely separated from the galaxies by unimaginable immensities of space; we are also connected to them by unimaginable immensities of time. We are literally made from stars. We are their descendants. The only difference between us and stars is time.

I don't know how this way of looking at things strikes you, but it raises in me an absurdly wonderful sense of celebration, and I look at the night sky not with a sense of hopeless separateness, but with a feeling of kinship: There shine the origins of every element in our bodies. Because stars exist, I exist. The processes that created those billions of unimaginably distant galaxies also created us.

We human beings are not separate from the universe. Those galaxies are not merely distant--they are distant cousins.

I blame my boyfriend for speaking so often about the universe that surrounds us. I can't stop reading and thinking about the universe, the stars, planets, galaxies and what we have yet to discover. Space is too fascinating, it really is and there's just so much that we don't know yet.

[Umaeril]

This is such a beautiful post you made. It is an astonishing concept to think about. I have thought about this universe and our origins before but not in those exact words. This universe is so fascinating. So full of burning kinetic beauty and cold mystery. If only I had a spaceship and could travel around and see it for myself.

[gremlin]

Thank you, I'm so glad to receive a reply in this thread from another who thinks the same as I do.
I can only hope that in my lifetime our technology will advance to the point where we may travel throughout space for however long we wish to and for as long as we wish to. I would give anything to be able to travel through space, it would be my greatest achievement.

[YourLuckyKeyblade]

I love outer space, it is my dream to work for NASA and I hope I can reach that dream someday. I think it is beautiful that we are in relation to stars and how they/we are made. It makes me think of all the future unborn children and counting/or looking at one star(s)may be them. Such a beautiful concept.

[gremlin]

I've always admired space but recently I have grown to love and and I am now incredibly fascinated by it.