How can you trace minerals from supernovas to our teeth and bones? Isn’t the calcium that make up our bones produced during our gestation? How is that connected to a supernova from potentially millions of years ago?
In: Biology
Elements heavier than hydrogen are created within stars, where hydrogen is fused together to form helium, which is fused to form lithium, and so-on and so-on. These elements are effectively “stored” within stars until they go supernova at the end of their lives. At this point, the explosion propels these elements all throughout the universe, where it eventually congealed into a dust cloud and formed our solar system. This dust is where the Earth eventually formed out of. Thus, everything we are is a result of dying stars.
So it’s not wrong to say we get our calcium from eating calcium, but the presence of calcium itself is a result of supernovae.
(All of this is from my rudimentary knowledge of stars and supernovae)
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