A Supernova? In your Family Tree?

Shouldn’t your family tree include a supernova?

Back in the late 1970’s and the early 1980’s, cosmologist Carl Sagan coined a phrase something like "We are the stuff of stars". The quick one paragraph history of everything (as we generally understand) goes like this:

At one point there was only light—pure energy, coagulating into hydrogen atoms only later. Then hydrogen atoms gathered, igniting under intense pressure to become stars. The stars burned, turning the hydrogen into helium and then other heavier elements. Some of these stars exploded as super novae, scattering elements such as carbon and iron around. The heavier elements combined to form planets. Finally, one particular planet, Earth, eventually grew you.

If you don't see a supernova in your family tree, keep researching. You'll find one.