From what distances do the atoms in you come from?

Asked Nov 04 '20 at 20:16

Active Nov 04 '20 at 22:53

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If the atoms of a human come from stars, comets, nebulas and magnetrons, then what is the greatest distance that two atoms of a human can possibly have been away from each other previously? Perhaps the distance could be further than 4 million light years, because two galaxies further than Andromeda could have fallen into the Milky Way in the earlier universe? is that correct?

Am I way off? Could it be 5 billion light years?

edited Nov 04 '20 at 22:48

asked Nov 04 '20 at 20:16

bandybabboon

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When the hydrogen atoms formed, so about 3-20 min after the big bang – seVenVo1d Nov 04 '20 at 20:32
The universe was about 20 light years at when the hydrogen atoms formed. There's a number compared to the size of the universe and a number compared to today's distances. – bandybabboon Nov 04 '20 at 22:18
FWIW, Wikipedia has a nice table of the major elements in the human body, giving percentages in both mass and number of atoms. – PM 2Ring Nov 04 '20 at 23:10
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Sort of related: https://astronomy.stackexchange.com/q/16311/16685 Also see this periodic table indicating the origins of the elements. – PM 2Ring Nov 04 '20 at 23:22
I had no idea that my magnetron was making human atoms, no wonder my food tastes so funny! – uhoh Nov 05 '20 at 00:10
There are Extragalactic cosmic rays that may be from far away, but their flux is quite low, so you might not have any in you. – Keith McClary Nov 05 '20 at 21:15
@keithMcClary Yes indeed, so the early solar system would have had extragalactic 10^12 cosmic rays per m2 when it was planetesmals. That can be an answer, it suggests that some of our atoms come from very far away. – bandybabboon Nov 06 '20 at 02:09

From what distances do the atoms in you come from?

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