What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?
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 light elements
into heavy elements in their core
under extreme temperatures and pressures
These stars, the high mass ones among them
went unstable in their later years
they collapsed and then exploded scattering their enriched guts across the galaxy
guts made of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen
and all the fundamental ingredients of life itself
These ingredients become part of gas cloud that
condense, collapse, form the next generation of solar systems
stars with orbiting planets, and those planets now have the ingredients for life itself
So that when I look up at 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, I look up-
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 feel relevant
you want to feel like a participant in the goings on
of activities and events around you
That's precisely what we are, just by being alive...