Did humans evolve from stardust

Answer 1

In the most abstract sense of the term, not the biological sense (until later on of course).

You could say that you and everything around you was made from stardust. This is because almost all the elements in our bodies (except hydrogen and helium) and in objects around us were synthesized either within stars or during supernovae through a process called nuclear fusion. When stars die they eject the elements into interstellar space in the form of gas and dust. Over long periods of time the elements making up these clouds of gas and dust come together to form stars, planets, and eventually us.

Billions of years ago there were no elements, just protons and electrons - they grouped together to form hydrogen (one of each particle). Then through weak gravitational interactions they began to form into clouds, massive clouds. Which eventually become denser and denser and their gravity becomes stronger and stronger until they crunch down to form a star, which is essentially a massive ball of hydrogen whose gravitational force causes the hydrogen within to fuse together releasing massive amounts of nuclear energy (like an atom bomb) and converting the hydrogen into partly heat and light radiation and partly other elements. Hydrogen + hydrogen = helium, hydrogen + helium = something else and so on and so forth until eventually you get everything from gold to plutonium.

This is how the matter which makes up our body (which is still about 70% hydrogen since the universe is 90% unconverted hydrogen) formed, so yes, we did come from stardust.

Answer 2

Yes, Our Sun and the Earth and planets are all about 5 billion years old. The universe is more than twice this old. Furthermore, elements heavier than iron are only formed from novas and supernovas. The fact that the Earth and our bodies have lots of elements heavier than iron shows that not only the Earth and Sun but our bodies were made from dust and gas from long-dead stars. It's amazing!

Answer 3

Virtually all elements in existence were formed at one point in the intense heat and pressure of past stars. The stars exploded or otherwise ejected their materials forming more stars, forming more elements, etc etc. Basically this means that we are made up of atoms that were created in stars over the past ages of the universe. And one day, the atoms we contain will most likely once again become parts of new stars. The current model holds that the first generation of stars made the lighter elements, and the heavier elements were made in later generations.