We are stardust

Here are some fantastic images from a new children’s book titled, “You Are Stardust,” by Elin Kelsey:

© Soyeon Kim, from the book You Are Stardust by Elin Kelsey & Soyeon Kim, OwlKids Press

© Soyeon Kim, from the book You Are Stardust by Elin Kelsey & Soyeon Kim, OwlKids Press

© Soyeon Kim, from the book You Are Stardust by Elin Kelsey & Soyeon Kim, OwlKids Press

© Soyeon Kim, from the book You Are Stardust by Elin Kelsey & Soyeon Kim, OwlKids Press

© Soyeon Kim, from the book You Are Stardust by Elin Kelsey & Soyeon Kim, OwlKids Press

© Soyeon Kim, from the book You Are Stardust by Elin Kelsey & Soyeon Kim, OwlKids Press

I’m encouraged that there are children’s books being produced that actually embrace the truths of science on our origins. This book also has an online supplement that provides more details on why we are made from the stuff of stars.

Here is an eloquent and inspiring explanation from Neil de Grasse Tyson:

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Our daily universe I

I’ve been thinking about starting a series of posts like this for a few days. I will periodically, or daily if possible but probably not likely, feature one of the many breathtaking shots being delivered to us from the Hubble telescope and other telescopes from around the world, or alternately, I’ll feature a story about some new area of space exploration or discovery. I was interested in such a series because I think it can remind us how immensely small we humans are, and nay, how immensely small Earth itself is compared to the sprawling and often hostile world outside of our own cozy atmosphere.

The well-established fact by now is that elements that find their beginnings in the cores of stars and other objects in space are also found right here on Earth (iron for instance), so much so that humans not only share a common bond with, say, monkeys, birds and fish (through the engine of evolution by natural selection), but that we share a common bond with the entire universe! This sort of makes the meager miracles and such in the Bible seem wholly unimpressive when compared with the sheer magnificence and majesty of the cosmos. And it’s that kernel of truth that once made astrophysicist [[Neil deGrasse Tyson]] deliver one of the most powerful “sermons” I have ever heard, in or out of church.

Here is the Tyson’s speech, and what follows is my first entry in this series, the [[Crab Nebula]].

Here is the Crab Nebula, the only remnant of a supernova that can be seen with a mid-range telescope:

A Giant Hubble Mosaic of the Crab Nebula
Source: Hubblesite.org

The Crab Nebula is a supernova remnant, all that remains of a tremendous stellar explosion. Observers in China and Japan recorded the supernova nearly 1,000 years ago, in 1054.

[Credit: NASA, ESA, J. Hester and A. Loll (Arizona State University)]

((http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/entire/pr2005037a/))

Here is a video about the Crab Nebula: