“You can take one of the greatest of all cosmic perspectives that exist, and it’s the revelation that emerged – mid 20th century – that the atoms of our body are traceable to the crucibles in the centers of stars, that then later exploded, scattering that enrichment into pristine gas clouds that then formed star systems with planets, one of which was the sun, with earth, so that we’re not simply alive in this universe, the universe is alive within us. That is a gift of modern astrophysics to civilization that borders on the spiritual, so that when you stand out in the night sky and look up, do you say, ‘Well I’m small and the universe is big?” You might say that and it be true,  but a bigger fact is you are made of the same ingredients as those stars. We’re not just poetically, we are literally stardust that achieved consciousness to contemplate the extent of the universe in which we live.”
– Neil deGrasse Tyson, speaking with Ari Melber on MSNBC, Sept. 22, 2022