returned

Space & Cosmos

The carbon in our bodies likely left the galaxy and returned on a cosmic conveyor belt.

An image of the star-dense part of our galaxy, the Milky Way, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team Life on Earth cannot exist without carbon. However, carbon itself cannot exist without stars. Almost all elements except hydrogen and helium (including carbon, oxygen, and iron) exist only because they were forged in stellar furnaces and then ejected…