Supercomputer Simulation Says We're Supernova Stardust

Based on supercomputer simulations by astrophysicists at Northwestern University, which took the equivalent of "several million hours of continuous computing," scientists say our original matter came from exploding supernovas that sailed to our solar system on "powerful galactic winds."

The leader of the study, Daniel Angles-Alcazar, said "We ran highly sophisticated simulations, looking at the formation of galaxies from shortly after the Big Bang and traced their development to today. We found that when we completed these simulations that we could say ... that the atoms which formed the solar system and so which form us, may have existed in other galaxies." 

They found a new phenomenon of "intergalactic transfer" due to fast moving gases flying to separate neighboring galaxies. Before such simulations, scientists thought galaxies formed by absorbing remaining substances from the big bang. 

"We knew about galactic winds from previous models but this transfer of mass that we've identified is a fresh result for us," Angles-Alcazar said.

Another astronomer on this team, Claude Faucher-Giguere, said the simulation implies "up to one half of the atoms around us" came from galaxies "up to one million light years away." 

So it seems we all fundamentally came from stars of the universe and it is a miracle that we manifest in this super sophisticated human form.