Ever wondered where did it all began? Stop for a moment, look around you! Try to think, how a chain of events across eons have conspired to this very moment where you are breathing, living and reading this.

A dawn

Around 13 Billion years ago, in what is known to be the biggest light show the universe has ever witnessed, came out innumerable amounts of energy. It was all chaotic at first, the amount of energy released was just super astronomical. So, when universe started its expansion, it led to the formation of particles which later formed into lighter atoms like Hydrogen.

With time (on this scale we are talking in hundreds of thousands of years), the very first atoms attracted each other and got into dense groups due to gravity. Since there were huge number of atoms, the groups grow bigger and bigger. Then, at some point, around the center of that group, they started colliding into each other at a very high speed, and slowly with time, collision grow more and more intense, causing two hydrogen atoms to fuse to form Helium atom, releasing huge amounts energy in various forms like light, heat, etc, in the process. It was universe’s first nuclear fusion reaction.

These group of atoms later developed into stars like our own Sun. Remember that the nuclear fusion reaction inside our sun is what drives our world, from where most of the energy that we consume comes from, be it the food that we eat, the fuel that we burn, etc. Even the brief shot of electricity in your brain that makes you understand this sentence, needs energy which comes from your food, which comes primarily from sun’s energy, which comes from the nuclear fusion reaction that started eons ago.

The stars that you see in night skies? They emit light because of these reactions. That’s where starlight comes from!

Fun fact: It takes approximately 100,000 years for light to reach from sun’s core to sun’s surface but only 8 minutes and 20 seconds to reach earth from sun’s surface. Ask why and explore!

Fun fact: These group of atoms that form into stars are called Molecular clouds. They are settler nursery or simply put; star factories. From where do these come? Ask why and explore!

Eventually these stars formed themselves into groups, those groups into galaxies consisting of trillions and trillions of stars. The scale of which is astounding! One has to really understand and ponder this to appreciate the beauty of our existence.

That’s how even our own beautiful and mighty sun came into existence. It is young and beaming with pride, for it has its own system of planets while some stars don’t. From what was left out of the solar nebula (our system’s molecular cloud), the planets formed with time.

Earth too came into existence from being a cloud of star dust. All most all the atoms that makes up earth came from that molecular cloud. Stop for a moment, look around you, what did you see? I am pretty sure, it was once star dust.

Our home,

The Pale blue dot,

We are all made of nothing but stardust that was forged inside some star, probably some eons ago. Some group of atoms combined and worked together as "energy machines" i.e to absorb, store and use energy. They formed themselves into molecules, later into complex yet beautiful teams of systems of molecules which eventually become what we call “life”. Then over billions of years, life learned to use earth’s material like water and carbon, to absorb and store sun’s energy. Life just kept getting really good at it for thousands of years

Eventually these energy machines evolved into plants, trees, animals which consumed those plants which had already did the work of harvesting sun’s energy and storing it. Food chain happened. Life got really smart at handling energy.

A point came, where life gave raise to humans, to communities, to empires, to civilization, to humanity and eventually to this moment. Those stardust combined in a specific way to make us who we are; Living beings.

Fun fact:There is cool representation of the entire universe’s known history, condensed into a 12 month calendar, called Cosmic Calendar. The perspective it gives, is worth the time taken to explore it so, do explore it!

Now, one needs to realize that lot of history has happened, people have born, played with fire, explored seas, fell in awe of stars, written timeless epics and dramas, drove steam engines, conquered the skies, invented and built great things, discovered continents, waged wars, loved deeply, and died; That millions of events have conspired across time and history to this very moment, where you are reading this article, existing, breathing, living life but why?

To realize that some brilliant and passionate minds in history have felt and asked the same questions like these; to realize that those questions have changed humanity, in a way that someone’s quest, who was born way way back, to search for answers to the questions that filled them with passion, is still making a profound impact on us, even today, to this very minute, making them outlive their death, to defeat the oblivion.

To believe and hope that you too, no matter who you are and where you are, might have a chance to do your part.

No matter how small or big it is, that it might have effects/feedback spanning over eons. That someone from future might feel inspired by you, at least in a subtle way, to do great things or to write a similar article like this one.

To hope for the dawn, to appreciate life, themselves, people and things around them, to work for the things that matters to them.

To change the course of human civilization for the good, to put a dent in the universe, to rest well in dusk with content.

This might give you a sense of relief, a sense of reason for existing; something to hold onto, when things get really tough; to cheer you up and when things get really good; to make you humble.

Live long and prosper, and this too shall pass!