If the Sun were reduced to the size of a white blood cell the Milky Way would span the size of the continental United States. This comparison shows how immense our galaxy truly is stretching about 100,000 light-years across and containing hundreds of billions of stars. Despite the Sun being incredibly large compared to Earth it becomes almost insignificant on the galactic scale. This perspective emphasizes both the vastness of the Milky Way and the small place our solar system occupies within it.
FORMATION OF ELEMENTS
Earth may be around 4.5 billion years old, but the story of its gold is far older. Gold, along with other heavy elements like platinum and uranium, was not created on Earth itself. Instead, it was forged in the hearts of massive stars and during the explosions known as supernovas.
In these cataclysmic events, the extreme temperatures and pressures allowed lighter elements, like hydrogen and helium, to fuse into heavier ones. When these stars exploded, they scattered those precious elements across the universe. Over time, this stardust merged into clouds of gas and dust that eventually formed our solar system.
That means every piece of gold on Earth, whether in jewelry, electronics, or buried deep underground, was created billions of years before our planet even existed. In a way, gold is a reminder that we are made of the universe’s oldest and most powerful events.
WATER
The Sun formed about 4.6 billion years ago making it older than Earth which came into existence shortly after at around 4.5 billion years ago. However the water on our planet tells a much older story. The hydrogen atoms in Earth’s water were created in the Big Bang nearly 13.8 billion years ago while the oxygen atoms were forged in the hearts of massive stars that lived and died long before our solar system was born. These ancient elements combined in interstellar space to form water molecules which were carried to the young Earth by comets and asteroids. This means that the water flowing in our oceans, rivers and even within us is billions of years older than the Sun itself connecting us directly to the earliest moments of the universe
OXYGEN
Many people believe that trees are the primary source of the oxygen we breathe but the truth is more fascinating. While forests especially rainforests do play an important role in producing oxygen and balancing carbon dioxide, the majority of Earth’s oxygen actually comes from the ocean. Tiny marine organisms called phytoplankton carry out photosynthesis, just like plants on land and they are responsible for producing around 50–80% of the oxygen in our atmosphere. These microscopic life forms float near the ocean’s surface, absorbing sunlight and carbon dioxide and in the process, they release vast amounts of oxygen that sustain life on Earth.