Everyone has a desire to connect with where their DNA
originated from. Friday night discussions in the tap room circled around an
upcoming vacation. The couple planned to follow the genetic signature revealed
by their DNA test results. The journey to find our common origination source
could go back even further. Let’s start at the very beginning. I heard
it’s a very good place to start.
In the first few seconds of the Big Bang, the simplest atom,
hydrogen, formed. Hydrogen atoms were the only element for nearly 300 million
years. Hydrogen atoms begin to stick together, forming large clusters. As
more and more hydrogen atoms joined the cluster, the internal temperature and
pressure excited the particles to the extent that two hydrogen atoms crashed together
in nuclear fusion. The protons of each hydrogen atom fused in the nuclei,
forming a nucleus with two protons. Helium was born. This nuclear fusion
released an astronomical amount of energy, converting some of the hydrogen mass
into energy expressed as light, creating a star. Einstein’s shorthand for this
process can be read as E=mc2.
Within the newborn star, nuclear fusion continued. Elements
crashed together again and again, protons colliding into nuclei, combining to
form more elements. Helium fused with hydrogen to form lithium, and on and on
all the way up to iron, with 26 protons in its nuclei. At this moment, the star
full of elements reached the end of its life and exploded in a supernova. The
elements erupted forth in the form of stardust that traveled on stellar winds
like little space dust bunnies, clumping together to form more stars. In all,
86 different elements are produced during the birth, life, and death of
stars.
All of these elements, these particles of stardust, make up
the human body. There is oxygen in our lungs, carbon in our muscles, calcium in
our bones, and iron in our blood. All of these elements were created inside a
star before Earth was ever a twinkle in her daddy’s eye. Imagine, someone may
have wished upon a star that you are made of.
This week of January is the perfect time of month for star
gazing, if the skies are clear. The moon is positioned in between the Earth and
Sun, showing us her dark side, and leaving only the light of the stars to reach
our eyes at night.
Look directly north around 7:30 p.m. to see the Double
Cluster of stars. These star clusters lie between the constellations of Perseus
and Cassiopia. The Double Cluster is visible by the naked eye in areas with
little light pollution – like our own Methow Valley dark skies. In the northern
sky this week, comet C/2017 T2 PanSTARRS will travel through the Cassiopeia
constellation. With binoculars, the comet and perhaps its tail is dimly visible
during the month of January. Peak visibility of the comet is during May 2020.
Preserving our dark skies allows us to see the very stars
from whence we came, and connect with the basic elements that we all share. As
Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Only in the darkness can you see the
stars.”
This article originally appeared in Methow Valley News, 22
January 2020
