APOD: 2020 August 9 - The Origin of Elements

Good morning, Rallypoint. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is titled "The Origin of Elements." Humans and the Milky Way have about 97 percent of the same kind of atoms, often called the building blocks of life: carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. Using spectroscopy, astronomers measure the depth of the dark and bright patches in each star's light spectrum to determine what it was made of. Today's featured periodic table is color coded to indicate humanity's best guess as to the nuclear origin of all known elements. We are indeed made of stardust.