Half the atoms inside your body came from across the universe

"Half of the atoms making up everything around you are intergalactic interlopers. Large galaxies like our Milky Way amassed half their matter from neighbouring star clusters up to a million light years away, according to a new simulation."

"Half the atoms inside your body came from across the universe" source

“We did not realise how much of the mass in today’s Milky Way-like galaxies was actually ‘stolen’ from the winds of other galaxies,” says corresponding author Claude-André Faucher-Giguère at Northwestern University in Illinois

The theft occurs after a death. When some stars reach the end of their life cycle, they become massive supernovae, spewing high-speed gas out into the universe. The matter in these ejections is picked up by galactic winds, streams of charged particles powered by the exploding supernovae."

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