🌟 When stars die and lose their mass, all the elements that had been generated inside are swept out into space. Then the next generation of stars form from those elements, burn, and are again swept out.
🍲 This constant reprocessing of everything is called galactic chemical evolution. Heavier than lithium elements were made in a star and if you combine those elements in different ways you can make species of gas, minerals, and bigger things like asteroids, and from asteroids, you can start making planets and then you start to make water and other ingredients required for life and then, eventually, us.
🎇 However, most of our hydrogen (which makes up roughly 9.5% of our bodies) and lithium, which our body contains in very tiny trace amounts, originated from the Big Bang itself so... we are roughly 90% star stuff!
💡 About this graphic: This unique original infographic shows the origin of the chemical elements that make up the human body and the systemic function of each. Last update Nov '2021.
This is a Pictorial Message sent to a potential extraterrestrial intelligence at Proxima Centauri in the "Mission Transmission" Active SETI project by UK's Fun Kids radio station. Created by our team in November 2021, it was sent simultaneously from several radio observatories in April 2022
