We are Stardust
Mitakuye Oyasin: a simple but profound Lakota prayer: Mitakuye Oyasin. These two words mean “All My Relations” or “We are All Related”. To pray this prayer is to petition God on behalf of everyone and everything on Earth
”The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.” -Neil Degrasse Tyson
Several amazing astrophysicists explain, everything we are and everything in the universe and on Earth originated from stardust, and it continually floats through us even today. It directly connects us to the universe, rebuilding our bodies over and again over our lifetimes. All the material in our bodies originates with that residual stardust, and it finds its way into plants, and from there into the nutrients that we need for everything we do—think, move, grow. And every few years the bulk of our bodies are newly created.
WE ARE STARDUST, WE ARE GOLDEN, WE ARE BILLION YEAR OLD CARBON, AND WE'VE GOT TO GET OURSELVES BACK TO THE GARDEN.
Neil deGrasse Tyson astrophysicist, planetary scientist, author, and Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City
Back in 2008, Time Magazine interviewed Neil de Grasse Tyson, and asked him, “ What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?” here is his answer:
“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…”
Neil deGrasse Tyson
We’re All Stardust — And Why That Should Make You Feel Awesome
~ Dr. Natalie Hinkel - Planetary Astrophysicist
According to Planetary Astrophysicist Dr. Natalie Hinkel, exploring outer space makes us realize all of the possibilities for galaxies, stars, planets — even life. The basic elements created within stars, or the raw ingredients required for life on Earth, needed to be present at exactly the right times in order for humans to exist — which is pretty empowering, when you think about it.
Dr. Natalie Hinkel is a researcher at Vanderbilt University, studying the composition of nearby stars and how that may affect the make-up of planets orbiting those stars. She got her bachelor’s degree in physics and math at Oberlin College. Her work has brought to light a number of important (and technical) truths within the field, which she has sought to explain by leading multiple international collaborations. Natalie also observes planets that are outside of the solar system, or exo-planets, by using the Cerro Tololo Interamerican Telescope in Chile. She has studied exotic systems where planets. Her PhD is in Astrophysics from the School of Earth and Space Exploration, which combines the fields of geology, planetary science, and astronomy, at Arizona State University. Natalie has put together the largest catalog of element abundances measured in stars near to the Sun, called the Hypatia Catalog; it contains +65 elements in over 6000 stars: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbYYc…
We are all made of stardust – The Pope’s Astrophysicist
~ Father George Coyne: Astrophysicist, Catholic priest and former director of the Vatican Observatory
George V. Coyne, a Jesuit priest and astrophysicist who served as director of the Vatican Observatory for nearly 30 years, “There is no conflict between science and religious belief,” he once told a television interviewer. “My faith is enriched by my science, and my science enriches my faith.”
Father Coyne rejected the view that science is the only way to true and certain knowledge, but he also challenged religious fundamentalists and proponents of the intelligent design movement, which he said reduces God to a “dictator God … who made the universe as a watch that ticks along regularly.”
“God in his infinite freedom continuously creates a world that reflects that freedom at all levels of the evolutionary process to greater and greater complexity,” Father Coyne countered. In an evolutionary universe, he wrote, God, like a loving parent, “is not continually intervening, but rather allows, participates, loves.”
Similarly, he challenged his friend Stephen Hawking, the Cambridge University physicist who wrote in A Brief History of Time that when scientists finally come to understand the formation of the universe, “it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason—for then we would know the mind of God.”
Father Coyne described Hawking’s concept of God as “something we need to explain parts of the universe we don’t understand. I tell him, ‘Stephen, I’m sorry, but God is a God of love. He’s not a being I haul in to explain things when I can’t explain them myself.”
“The Universe is under no obligation to make sense to you.” -Neil Degrasse Tyson
We are made of star stuff
~ Jocelyn Bell Burnell: Astrophysics Professor Oxford (UK)
Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell is an astrophysicist Professor in Oxford (UK) who, as a postgraduate student, discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967. She was credited with “one of the most significant scientific achievements of the 20th century”, opening up a new branch of astrophysics — work recognised by the award of a Nobel Prize to her supervisor.
Subsequently she has worked in many roles in many branches of astronomy, working part-time while raising a family. Increasing the number of women in science is important to her. In her spare time she gardens, listens to choral music, collects poetry with an astronomical theme, and is active in the Quakers (Religious Society of Friends).
Now, 51 years after she first noticed an odd bit of “scruff” in her observations, Bell Burnell has been awarded a $3-million Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. The prize committee not only cites her “detection of radio signals from rapidly spinning, super-dense neutron stars” but also her “lifetime of inspiring scientific leadership.”
Bell Burnell has spent her career working to lift up women and minorities in science. Need proof? She’s donating that $3 million to a charity in the U.K. whose mission is to support physics graduate students from under-represented groups.
We Are Dead Stars
~ Michelle Thaller PhD: Assistant director for Science Communication at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.
While the saying “we are stardust” seems poetic but vague, it is literally true. The atoms of your body were created in the cores of stars billions of years ago. We should use this knowledge to draw closer to each other and share the joy and fear of our brief existence. Recorded at TEDxBaltimore January 2016.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to take the same career path as you?
The most useful thing I ever did in my early education was to join a debate team. Being an astronomer is very much about being comfortable with thinking on your feet and coming up with compelling arguments on the fly.
Once you’re finished with school, I would advise you to not be too rigid or have too specific of an idea of where you want to end up. I wanted to be a research professor at a university, but that’s not what happened. Opportunities crop up on their own schedules. You can’t force them, and you’ve got to be able to respond to them when they do happen. I really believe that the changes in my career path were for the best. Maybe you’ll meet someone who changes your ideas about where your career should go, or maybe you’ll be offered a different sort of job than one you had originally planned. The most interesting careers I see are the ones that went in unexpected directions.
We Are All Stardust
~ Haley Gomez: Astrophysicist, Cardiff University’s School of Physics and Astronomy
Haley Gomez works on using the most sensitive infrared cameras in space to reveal the origins of the building blocks of life – cosmic dust grains – and has published over 85 papers in the last 10 years. Her research has been recognized with an award from the Royal Astronomical Society for noteworthy contribution for an early career researcher. In 2015 she was also awarded a prestigious and highly competitive grant worth €1.8 million to measure the dust content of galaxies since the Big Bang.
Throughout her career, she has also taken a leading role in bringing research to the public and, in particular, encouraging girls and children from disadvantaged backgrounds. She received an Inspire Wales Award in 2014 for most inspirational person in the Science and Technology Category for this work.
So What Now?
~ Albert Einstein : “The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe. Is the universe on your side? ”
Albert Einstein: “A human being is a part of the whole called by us universe, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feeling as something separated from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
The most beautiful and most profound experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms – this knowledge, this feeling is at the center of true religiousness”.
The DNA of your stardust has a code hidden inside "YHVG"
Gregg Braden: A coded message has been found within the molecules of life, deep within the DNA in each cell of our bodies. Through a remarkable discovery linking Biblical alphabets to our genetic code, the language of life may now be read as the ancient letters of a timeless message. The audio in this video is brought to you by HayHouse & Wisdom Traditions.
A coded message has been found within the molecules of life, deep within ght DNA in each cell of our bodies. Through a remarkable discovery linking Biblical alphabets to our genetic code, the “language of life” may now be read as the ancient letters of a timeless message. Regardless of race, religion, heritage, or lifestyle, the message is the same in each cell every woman, child, and man, past and present. Sharing all-new fascinating research, Gregg Braden discusses the life-changing discovery that led him from a successful career in the aerospace and defense industries to an extensive 12-year study of the most sacred and honored traditions of humankind
Gregg Braden: New York Times best-selling author and 2015 Templeton Award nominee Gregg Braden is internationally renowned as a pioneer in bridging science and indigenous knowledge to create real-world solutions for today. Following successful careers in the energy and defense industries, he became the first technical operations manager for Cisco Systems in 1991. For three decades, Gregg has explored high mountain villages, remote monasteries, and forgotten texts to merge their wisdom with the best science of our time. Based in New Mexico, Gregg has shared his discoveries with the United Nations, Fortune 500 companies, mainstream universities, and audiences throughout the world. Website: www.greggbraden.com