What is the most astounding fact you
can share with us about the Universe?
The most astounding fact...
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 'cause 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...
