“Life begins with the process of star formation. We are made of stardust. Every atom of every element in your body except for hydrogen has been manufactured inside stars, scattered across the Universe in great stellar explosions, and recycled to became part of you. The hydrogen is primordial, produced in the Big Bang, along with helium (there is no helium in your body). Hydrogen and helium together formed the raw material for the first generation of stars, some 12 billion years ago, but everything else has been built up by nuclear fusion in stellar furnaces.”

Stardust: the cosmic recycling of stars, planets and people