Why We Are Star Stuff - Essay Example

Carl Sagan proposes that it is these atoms of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon, and carbon that have been emitted eons ago that condensed to form new suns and planets. Our second or third-generation sun and the solar system around it are the results of such condensation. In essence, all matter on planet earth is condensed matter from the emissions of stars. We humans have been formed from this matter. The rocky matter on which the earth is made up of, the iron present as hemoglobin in our blood, the calcium present in our teeth and bones, the carbon that makes up our genetic matter have all come from the early emissions from the first generation stars.

This is the basis of Carl Sagan’s argument that we are “Star Stuff”. He further connects this basis of humans being “Star Stuff” as the cause for the underlying human need “to seek and understand” this connection with the universe, which neither astrology nor astronomy can satisfy. (1)Works Cited1. Sagan, Carl. Carl Sagan’s Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2000.