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Every atom in your body was forged in a star. The iron in your blood, the oxygen and carbon that make up the proteins and fats that allow complex organisms to e
by hoorayimhelping 11y ago
Every atom in your body was forged in a star. The iron in your blood, the oxygen and carbon that make up the proteins and fats that allow complex organisms to exist, the copper and gold we use for wiring, the uranium we're splitting for energy; all of it was made by a star that had used up all its hydrogen and started fusing heavier elements.
Nearly all of the energy we use on earth (a small fraction is from nuclear decay) is stored sunlight. The gasoline we burn? That was sunlight that got converted into a plant, which was converted into a growing dinosaur that ate plants, which died and was converted into oil over billions of years of heat and pressure.
Thinking of that always makes me smile at how somewhat accidentally right ancient people who worshiped the sun as a god were.
- analog31 11y agoIndeed, and in fact there's an additional interesting twist: Stellar fusion can only produce elements up to the atomic weight of iron. Production of heavier elements requires a supernova. So we know that our solar system is at least one stellar life cycle removed from the earliest stars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_peak https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_peak
- hyperpallium 11y agoUsed very little, but there's also tidal and geothernal power.
- TheSpiceIsLife 11y agoTidal movement of the oceans is generated by the pull of the moon and sun. Given the Earth / Moon system is only exists because the of the Sun, they're both arguable solar also.
- TheSpiceIsLife 11y agoHow about all the hydrogen in those hydrocarbons and carbohydrates. Wouldn't that be original hydrogen atoms from the pre-star universe?
- BlackMonday 11y agoHehe, this reminds me of some George Carlin show. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6RT6rL2UroE https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6RT6rL2UroE