The Most Astounding Fact about the Universe [short]
The most astounding fact is the knowledge that the atoms that comprise life on Earth—the atoms that make up the human body are traceable to the crucibles that cooked the light elements into heavy elements in a star’s core under extreme temperatures and pressures. These stars, the high-mass stars among them went unstable into their later years; they collapsed and then exploded… scattering their enriched guts across the galaxy, made up of hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and all the fundamental ingredients of life itself. These ingredients became part of gas clouds that condensed, collapsed and formed the next generation of solar systems—stars with orbiting planets. And those planets now have ingredients for life itself. So that when I look up in the night sky, and I know that yes we are part of this universe, we are in this universe. But perhaps more important than both of those facts—is that the universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, many people feel small because they’re small and the universe is big, but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars! There’s a level of connectivity. That’s really what you want in life you want to feel connected, you want to be relevant, and you want to feel like a participant that goes on the activities and events around you. That’s precisely what we are, just by having that knowledge and being alive.
Image: https://laryter.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/430311_583849274969421_1215251279_n.jpg