Dust to Dust

Allan Ko,  Grade 11, Fremont, CA


Genesis 3:19 of the Bible says, “For dust you are, and to dust you will return.” It turns out this is completely true, albeit in a somewhat unexpected sense.

Let's go on a bit of tangent and take a look at stars, the basic powerhouses of the universe. Stars are powered by nuclear fusion, induced by the gargantuan pressures and temperatures in their centers. The conditions are so extreme that electromagnetic repulsive forces between protons (or hydrogen nuclei) in the core are overcome, and the atoms are mashed together in what is called the “proton-proton” process, fusing four protons into a helium nucleus and thereby releasing energy.

The proton-proton process takes place in all stars, but for stars like our Sun, that's pretty much where it stops (for a brief period of time at its death, the Sun will fuse helium into carbon, then fusion will cease and the Sun will essentially die, losing its outer layers and retaining a dense carbon core known as a white dwarf). However, for stars more than eight times the mass of the Sun, pressures and temperatures go so high in the core that they will actually fuse elements as heavy as iron (and numerous elements in between, including neon, magnesium, and silicon).

Fast forward to the end of this massive star's life. The star has become unstable because fusion has almost ceased to generate energy inside the core to support the weight of the outer layers, so the star collapses rapidly inwards under the force of gravity. Ironically, this inward rush of material raises pressures and ignites fusion again, but this time in a runaway process that the star can't stop. The star thus explodes in a spectacular supernova, which packs so much energy that most of the elements heavier than iron are created and then ejected, with the rest of the stellar material, into the surrounding area as “stellar dust.”

What does this have to do with Genesis 3:16? Well, hydrogen and helium are the most common elements in the universe, but clearly a host of other, heavier elements were required to create the Earth and us humans. This means that practically all of the atoms that make up our bodies and the planet we live on (such as silicon, carbon, magnesium, or sulfur) were created via stellar fusion, and then ejected into space when these stars died. Eventually, these elements coalesced again to form our Sun and solar system, enabling mankind's very existence! Moreover, when the Sun dies five billion years from now, the Earth will be broken up as well, and its atoms will in turn be dispersed, to be later formed into new stars and solar systems.

In short: everybody on this planet (and everything) is made of stardust! Maybe magic does exist after all; we just need to find it where it's disguised as science.