Alien material in the human body

Half of the atoms in the human body could be matter coming from stars in other galaxies in the universe.

US scientists in the study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society point out the ability of half of the human body to be derived from supernova explosions in satellite galaxies of size smaller than the Milky Way, Guardian reported on July 27.

The model of green gas masses moves from the satellite galaxy into the large central galaxy.(Video: Guardian).

Studying the evolution of galaxies over billions of years by modeling on supercomputers, scientists found that large supernova explosions could blow trillions of atoms away from the gravitational pull of the celestial Root and go into space.

These atoms move in the form of large clouds with speeds of hundreds of kilometers per second. They travel over a million light-years across before entering the new galaxy.

Most of hydrogen and helium in these clouds form new stars. The heavier elements become raw materials of comets, asteroids, planets and life. By absorbing this huge amount of matter, the target galaxies grow bigger.

This study shows that half of the matter in the Milky Way galaxy and similar sized galaxies can come from smaller satellite galaxies. Each year, the Milky Way absorbs the amount of material outside the galaxy equivalent to about one sun.

Half of the material in the human body comes from supernova explosions.

"What is surprising is that galactic winds contribute more material than we thought," said Daniel Anglés-Alcár, an astronomer at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Scientists have long argued that galaxies grow mainly by absorbing the remaining amount of matter after the Big Bang.

"In some ways, we are extraterrestrials and immigrants in our way of thinking about the Milky Way," said Anglés-Alcár. "It is possible that we come from very far corners of the universe," said Claude-André Faucher-Giguère, an astronomer on the team.