The Universe In Us

Where did the building blocks of life come from? The answer lies in the hearts of distant stars and incredibly powerful explosions such as supernovae, which help spread fundamental elements to galaxies far and wide, where they can spark new life. The talk explores how hundreds of millions of celestial events have forged the elements that make up the Solar System, Earth, and us. Travel deep inside a giant star nearing the end of its life and witness the collision of stellar corpses. From the oxygen we breathe to the iron in our blood, the silicon in Earth’s mantle to the uranium that warms our planet’s core and helps give our planet its protective magnetic field, we owe it all to the stars!

Speaker: Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, UC Santa Cruz