What the stars leave

What the three stars left

Three stars born together in one cloud became a black hole, a neutron star and a white dwarf. What set their fates apart was their mass at birth. The gas they scattered carries carbon, oxygen and iron newly made inside the stars. This gas gathers again and becomes the next generation of stars and planets.

Why?The carbon and oxygen in your body and the iron in your blood were also made inside stars long ago. The Sun and Earth themselves formed from gas left by earlier stars.

Learn moreMuch of the gold and other elements heavier than iron is thought to be made when two neutron stars crash together. A neutron-star collision seen in 2017, in both gravitational waves and light, gave evidence for this.

When

About 12 billion years old

Star we are watching

Black hole · neutron star · white dwarf

Size · state

Scattered gas = material for the next stars