Jump to content

Stardust

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Wiswright (talk | contribs) at 13:56, 6 November 2023 (Added material). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Look up stardust in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Stardust may refer to:


We can metaphorically say 'we are stardust' in that the elements we are made of, primarily hydrogen, carbon, oxygen and nitrogen (elements 1, 6, 7 & 8) typically are made by fusion in the core of most stars. That is, with the exception of hydrogen which is the most abundant element in the Universe and is the beginning of the fusion process, that is, two hydrogens fuse to make Helium in the Sun. Fusion power on Earth fuses isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium and tritium. Particularly large stars can produce atoms as large as Fe (iron, element #26). The shockwave produced by a supernova explosion, or the collision of stars, can also produce heavier elements.

We can say 'we are dust/dirt' in that all energy and matter that makes us comes from plants growing in the dirt (so we seem to 'come from' the dirt), and to the dirt we will, normally in nature, 'return'. Noting that soil/dirt/dust is typically broken down organic matter that normally contains substantial amounts of air and water (25% each, for example), and is more concentrated in terms of minerals and nitrogen etc., than living organic matter. The situation is somewhat more involved than this because of the water cycle, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, etc., in the environment.

We can also say 'we are primarily made of air and water' because we are hydrocarbons, primarily made of hydrogen, carbon and oxygen compounds (along with trace minerals, nitrogen, etc.) derived from photosynthesis in plants which splits carbon dioxide from the air to get carbon, and splits water to get hydrogen, to ultimately make a huge variety of compounds in plants and animals.

We can say we are 'stardust' taken from the air, soil and water that is caught up the in the C (carbon), N (nitrogen), (water) cycles of matter on Earth. Noting that there are no energy cycles (perpetual motion machines), just matter cycles, according to the second law of thermodynamics.

Entertainment

Songs

Albums

Books and comics

Film, theater and television

Other entertainment

Other uses

See also

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Stardust&oldid=1183785111"