The Importance of Carbon in the Universe

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Carbon is really the most important element in the universe for a variety of reasons. It enabled this whole evolution that we're now observing and literally seeing in the sky. So combined with the fact that you have the iron deficient, all of that is probably important to creating humans. We need all the elements. But if you don't have stars, you know, like the sun, small stars that can actually host planets that have long lifetimes,. You need long long lifetimes if you want to have a stable planet and develop humans.

Anna Frebel is an astronomer and astrophysicist at MIT. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
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OUTLINE:
Here’s the timestamps for the episode. On some podcast players you should be able to click the timestamp to jump to that time.
(00:00) – Introduction
(05:26) – First elements
(12:35) – Milky Way
(16:11) – Alien worlds
(19:16) – Protogalaxies
(24:29) – Black holes
(29:27) – Stellar archeology
(38:42) – Oldest stars
(46:32) – Metal-poor stars
(1:02:05) – Neutron capture
(1:07:01) – Neutron stars
(1:12:30) – Dwarf galaxies
(1:17:10) – Star observation
(1:45:27) – James Webb Space Telescope
(1:51:17) – Future of space observation
(1:54:26) – Age of the universe
(2:07:34) – Most beautiful idea in astronomy
(2:11:23) – Advice for young people
(2:20:17) – Meaning of life