For me it is the fact that our blood contains iron. I earlier used to believe the word stood for some ‘organic element’ since I couldn’t accept we had metal flowing through our supposed carbon-based bodies, till I realized that is where the taste and smell of blood comes from.

  • @zirzedoltaOP
    link
    25
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    What’s even more fascinating is that most of the stars we see in the sky are afterimages of primitive stars that died out long ago yet they shine as bright as the stars alive today

    • AdaM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      238 months ago

      That doesn’t seem right. The galaxy is only 100,000 light years across (give or take) and the life span of stars is measured in billions of years.

      Most of the stars we see are in our galaxy, so at most, we are seeing them as they were 100,000 years ago, which means that the vast majority of them will still be around, and looking much the same as they did 100,000 years ago.

      • @zirzedoltaOP
        link
        13
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        I seem to have made a mistake then. Thank you for correcting it.

        • AdaM
          link
          fedilink
          118 months ago

          Thinking about it further, if we’re talking about stars that we can see with telescopes, Hubble, James Webb etc, then you’re on the money. Stars in remote galaxies far outnumber the ones in our galaxy and show us glimpses of the early stages of the universe. And many of those stars are long gone

      • @LostGuide@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        2
        edit-2
        8 months ago

        Not too sure where you got that number from. From what I can find, the radius of the observable universe is estimated to be about 46.5 billion light-years.

        Edit: I see now that you are talking Galaxy. That’s different.

        • AdaM
          link
          fedilink
          English
          38 months ago

          The original comment was about stars we can see in the sky, so I was assuming naked eye