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February 3, 2021

The Stars Within Us: How the elements inside you, and everything, were forged


Iron, carbon, hydrogen — many of the elements that construct skyscrapers and cell phones are also the building blocks of people and puppies. At the atomic scale, we are all made of the same things. Where did those atoms come from? Every element was forged in the cosmos, from stars that collapse and collide to black holes that fire jets deep into space. Not only are we “made of star stuff”, we are made of atoms that were forged in some of the most intense environments in the universe.

Credit: National Science Foundation


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