11
E
arth was formed around five billion years ago, when
gases and dust from the explosions of giant stars came
together. Today everything on and in our beautiful
blue planet is made from that same stardust. Every rock and
every living thing contains those first atoms, which have been
recycled over and over and over since our planet was formed.
And, yes,
every living thing
includes you and me.
The human body contains about seven octillion (that’s
seven followed by twenty-seven zeros!) atoms, almost all of
them hydrogen, oxygen, carbon or nitrogen atoms. Since all
of those atoms have been endlessly recycled since Earth’s
formation, it’s quite possible that some of the atoms in your
body were once in a dinosaur or a strange creature at the
bottom of the sea, a giant sequoia tree or a tiny alpine flower
near the top of a mountain.
Like all other living things, humans die. And when we
die, those zillions of atoms we contain will be recycled once
again and returned to the great pool of matter and energy
from which all of life flows. We are simply part of a giant
cycle of life and death.
The atoms in the stardust and gases that
came together to form Earth are the same
ones that we are made from.
YUSUF YILMAZ/
SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
C H A P T E R O N E
We Are Stardust
