Entropy by Mayank Chhaya
Ian Sample, Science Editor of The Guardian, writes that computer simulations by scientists reveal that nearly half of the material in the Milky Way came from smaller galaxies in our neighborhood. We the people and everything else in our galaxy, therefore, is half extra-galactic. This is considered a wholly new finding based on detailed simulations of billions of years of galactic evolution.
My first response on reading this was embarrassingly mundane. If I am half extra-galactic, then half of all my financial liability should also be transferred to outside the Milky Way. Next time I get a call from a creditor my response will be, “Have you tried collecting from any of the neighboring galaxies?”
Various people have over the past century and more, including most famously Carl Sagan, have said that we are made of star-stuff. If Earth is made of star-stuff, then by its very implication we too are made of star-stuff. So that is not the new part here. What is said to be new, according to Sample’s story, is that nearly half of the atoms in our galaxy came from outside as a result of supernova explosions in smaller galaxies. These explosions spew out trillions of tons of material which travel to across galaxies.
Everyday implications of this knowledge are non-existent because it does not solve any earthly problems, including the display of volatile lunacy we witness around the world. However, in so much as it tells us how widespread our origin could well be I have always found it liberating ever since I heard Sagan say it in the 1970s. It is unfortunate that when it comes to dealing with life and its inevitable challenges we cannot possibly use the alibi of this half extra-galactic alibi. It does not help to argue in the face of every challenge to say “But half my atoms are not even from this galaxy.” I am still going to try and use that excuse.
I vividly remember when I first heard Sagan say this with his trademark enunciation: “Our Sun is a second- or third-generation star. All of the rocky and metallic material we stand on, the iron in our blood, the calcium in our teeth, the carbon in our genes were produced billions of years ago in the interior of a red giant star. We are made of star-stuff.” There was an audible shriek of exultation that came out of me.
Some four decades hence that knowledge has remained as has the realization that it does not necessarily redeem anything that comes by way of the oppressive mundaneness of life. To me the latest revelations about star-stuff seem quite similar to what Sagan had said then. It is possible that a read giant star that he spoke of could be in our own Milky Way unlike the revelation that about half of what we are made of came from our neighboring galaxies. So it could be a red giant star from a nearby galaxy.
P.S.: Just as I was finishing this post I got a call—at 7.26 a.m.—from a creditor. I answered it and said with great politeness,“Have you tried collecting from any of the neighboring galaxies?” The caller was confused at first, then amused and finally asked me if I would like to set up a payment from three weeks from now. I said yes as long as half of that comes from a neighboring galaxy. She laughed.