Scattering Star Stuff into the Void

This piece was originally published on Substack on May 17, 2023.

I once sat in on an astronomy class that changed everything I thought about how things are. The instructor explained that certain substances on the table of elements only exist because of the chemical reactions inside stars. It literally requires the intense pressure inside a star to create heavy elements. Without stars living and dying and exploding and colliding, the elements that form our world could not exist.

Until that point, I’d only been taught that our sun is made of hydrogen and helium. This is mostly true, but a very basic understanding of how stars work. I’d also been told to believe that the universe is a mere handful of millennia old because it was created by god in six literal days.

That day was the last straw for my faith in young earth creationism. I realized the universe is more complex than I will ever comprehend. I felt impossibly small, but I also felt more alive than ever. The stuff in my body comes from stars.

Stardust is the last name I’ve chosen for myself because it reminds me that I’m a tiny piece of the universe.