Star Stuff

is what we are made of. From this beautiful collection of dust and hydrogen and helium we were born. It's hard to believe that we came from those twinkling dots light years away.

The material present when the big bang occurred nearly 14 billion years ago made us. Astronomy has a way of igniting a childhood fascination within me.

Just look at that, does any of it seem conceivable?

We are part of some vast universe which can not begin to be constrained or defined within the limits of science. The universe is a great reminder of how little we really are in the scheme of our own life and infinite unknown around.

Here are some facts my astronomy teacher shared with our class:

1. Stars are light years away. Light years are a distance and not a measure of time. Light year is the distance in which light travels to reach us. Although light years represent distance they do signify the period of time an objects light takes to reach us. When we look at a star that is eight light years away we are looking at that star eight years ago because it takes that long for the light to reach us. We have the ability to look in the past.

2. There could be galaxies older than 14 billion years away, but we have not seen them yet because the universe has not been around long enough for that light to reach us. There is so much undiscovered.

3. While the universe is expanding, galaxies are pulled together by gravity.

4. Our milky way galaxy contains more than 100 billion stars

5. The stars are racing across our sky but we can not see it because of the vast distance.

We are all just star stuff, little bits of dust that were born from some exploding star that scattered the elements into space.

Maybe you'll gaze up in the sky now, like I do, and take a moment to appreciate those twinkling lights that made us all.