Stars in the Sky (We are all made of stars)

As we gaze at the sky and look at the beautiful stars adorning the night like jewels, we fail to appreciate and understand that we are looking at our origins. In 2002, music artist Moby released a song titled ‘We are all Made of Stars” and later explained that his lyrics were based on quantum physics and that "On a basic quantum level, all the matter in the universe is essentially made up of stardust," Even before then, in the early 80s, astronomer Carl Sagan famously stated that "We are a way for the universe to know itself. Some part of our being knows this is where we came from. We long to return. And we can, because the cosmos is also within us. We're made of star stuff."

Some theorists mention that when we are looking at the stars, we are looking into the past, and many of the stars have already died. While some others like Phil plait in his blog post ‘Are the stars you see in the sky already dead’ gets into detail that this statement is far from the truth given the lifecycle of a star which extends to millions and in some cases billions of years. And while it’s true that stars take light-years to travel and reach earth, and what we may be seeing at present, may actually be, as it was thousands of years ago. As Phil in his blog further explains that light from the nearest star which is the Sun takes approximately eight minutes to reach earth, so we are actually seeing the sun as it was eight minutes ago. But he goes on to explain that the second part of the statement that many of the stars have already died is not true, and is convincing enough.

But it can also be said that we are not only looking at the past, but we are the past of the stars gone by. Every star goes through a cycle of life, and when it reaches the supernova stage towards the end of its life, it explodes due to runaway internal combustion and becomes extremely bright, more than million times the brightness of the star. This continues for a short period, after which it gradually fades away and disperses materials into the interstellar space. According to Springer in his book "Cosmic Collisions: The Hubble Atlas of Merging Galaxies," mentions that the oldest stars almost exclusively consisted of hydrogen and helium, with oxygen, carbon and the rest of the heavy elements in the universe later coming from supernova explosions and was made over a period of billions of years.

According to Chris Impey, professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona, "We know that stars make heavy elements, and late in their lives, they eject gas into the medium between stars so it can be part of subsequent stars and planets (and people)."

“We are all made of stars” has never sounded so true. So, when you look at the night sky, think not only that you are looking at the past, but also remember that our planet, and what we are at present, is the past of the stars themselves.