Current evidence indicates that the Big Bang occured 13.7 billion years ago and scientists believe that the first stars ignited within 200 million years. These original stars, forming from clouds of hydrogen and helium, were giants, thousands of times larger than our sun. Within their furnaces, heavier elements (oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, etc.) were formed during the process of fusion and, when these monster stars exploded as supernovae, even larger, heavier elements were created.
Over time, the formation and explosion of giant stars has enriched interstellar space with the building blocks of other stars, comets, asteroids, planets and life itself. As new stars formed within these clouds of debris, their gravity captured smaller remnants, leading to the development of solar systems; our sun ignited 5 billion years ago and the Earth formed 400 million years later.
All of the elements that make up the rocks, soil, air, fluids, fuels, metals, plants, animals, structures and fabrics of our planet are products of intrastellar or supernova fusion. We are star dust!
