Up amongst the stars...

 

The existence of the Sun is an ode to its lifelong attempt at establishing some semblance of equilibrium between its two defining, yet starkly contrasted characteristics. 

On one hand is the lullaby of its rays, that sweetly caress all of creation, providing energy for all of life’s most crucial reactions; establishing the environment for the sustenance of said life. Much louder though, on the other hand, is the heavy metal anthem of the infernal belligerence of our maternal star - Giving life only to a privileged few, and every so often threatening to deprive the few of that life. To the rest, the sun exists in extremes: The cause of a hell-like furnace to be glared at contemptuously from the surface of Mercury, or a distant dream to be longed for from the icy world of Pluto. 

In 5.5 billion years, our Sun will die. 

More precisely, the process that sustains it will cease. 

At its core, where temperatures encroach into the millions and pressure breaks the scales, the Sun is constantly smashing hydrogen atoms together with such immense force that enormous amounts of energy are released and helium atoms are formed. In 5 billion years, it will start flinging helium atoms at each other, forming carbon atoms, with the hydrogen forming a layer outside a helium core. In larger stars than our own, carbon atoms will be fused to oxygen atoms, oxygen to neon, neon to magnesium, magnesium to silicon until finally, silicon atoms are thrown together with such violent force that iron is formed. Most stars do not have the ‘strength’ to fuse iron to anything heavier. Ours in particular will likely never fuse anything heavier than carbon. And at the point at which this happens, the funeral dirge of the Sun, and indeed, mankind, if we are there to see it, will begin. 

What will follow is a process by which the Sun, which at this point will have expanded into Earth’s personal space, will begin to shed off each of the layers that would have formed. In stars bigger than our Sun, this occurs as a violent but extraordinarily beautiful explosion - a supernova. For our Sun however, this process will be relatively more peaceful, as hydrogen, helium, carbon and perhaps, oxygen are flung into the universe, revealing the final form of the Sun - A white dwarf. 

Only then shall it rest in well-deserved peace…

For the elements that shall be thrown out into the universe, new homes shall be found and new forms shall be taken. The legacy of our Sun shall live on, in the same way that the legacies of the many stars before us live in us. Every atom in the universe today sings the same ode that its parent star’s existence sang, and throbs with the confidence of infinity as it zooms through the universe. 

Every being in existence is a chorus of billions of atoms, each with a different ancestry, meticulously arranged to form the building blocks of a life that is a temporary expression of an incredible, infinite story, through an incredible, finite song. One day, a new song will be sung from the building blocks that sing the song of you, in the same way that the song of you is being intoned by the building blocks that sang the song of a distant star in a far away galaxy. Another still shall be sung after that. And another. And another…

In mortality, all of creation has scraped the surface of infinity. 

And so perhaps, the end, however you may define it, may not exist. The end, as a figment, is a beginning in itself - An opportunity for a new song to be sung and a new story to be told. The law of the universe is that for ‘things’ to be, they must be born from the immortal: The law of conservation of energy – Energy cannot be created or destroyed. The apple you ate at breakfast is an expression of immortal subatomic particles as a finite, temporary source of nourishment. The device on which you’re reading this is a symphony of atoms, singing the song of technology. The relationship you just got out of was an expression of the immortal values of friendship, mutual care and affection through what turned out to be finite building blocks. The many social justice movements, the many revolutions, the many radical changes that throughout recorded history have been proposed and promptly shut down, have all been but temporary, mortal expressions of the immortal values of freedom, equality and human dignity. 

In every way, the destiny of the conglomeration of atoms that we are exists up amongst the stars, where we must dwell. 

Infinite, limitless and unbounded. 

"Be noble, for you are made of stars"

~ A Serbian Proverb ~

Sincerely, 

Muku