← Another date

Birthday · September 14, 2026

Where Your Elements Came From

September 14, 2026

Here’s to you, and all the wonder still ahead.

A little universe, just for you

Your date.
Ready to give.

Choose a greeting

Free PNG · 1080 × 1350 · No account needed

Image rights and credit requirements apply when sharing or reusing imagery.

Choose an image from another year

Your celebration date stays the same. Each image keeps its actual publication date.

Change the year

Selected image source ↗ APOD published September 14, 2026. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.

Behind the original result

Where Your Elements Came From

Original APOD · September 14, 2026 ↗

Read the original APOD for the astronomer’s explanation and full image credits. Its text is preserved in the archive as published.

Read the archived explanation

The hydrogen in your body and present in every molecule of water came from the Big Bang. There are no other appreciable sources of hydrogen in the universe. The carbon in your body was made by nuclear fusion in the interior of stars, as was the oxygen. Much of the iron in your body was made during supernovas of stars that occurred long ago and far away. The gold in your jewelry was likely made from neutron stars during collisions that may have been visible as short-duration gamma-ray bursts or gravitational wave events. Elements like phosphorus and copper are present in our bodies in only small amounts but are essential to the functioning of all known life. The featured periodic table is color coded to indicate humanity's best guess as to the nuclear origin of all known elements. The sites of nuclear creation of some elements, such as copper, are not really well known and are continuing topics of observational and computational research. APOD's main NASA site is moving: From apod.nasa.gov to science.nasa.gov/apod

Explore September 14 in other years · 32 APOD entries, 1995–2026

Updated · APOD entries through