Have you ever wondered where the material that eventually became our Earth came from?

In the new research, Farrar and her colleagues identified five cosmic rays over a 10-year period that all come from one small circle in the sky. It is likely, she said, that they were all spawned from the same source. Like motorists taking different paths through a city, however, they each arrived at their own pace and took a slightly different parking slot.

Other observations of that same circle of sky reveal a colossal merger of two clusters of galaxies, about 450 million light-years away. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers).

Farrar can’t be certain the merger is the source of the cosmic rays, but that’s her bet for now. The merger would fuel huge magnetic shock waves that could accelerate particles with tremendous force. The galaxies in the cluster could also be home to quasars or gamma-ray bursts that might have produced the fast-flying particles.

“Stuff we’re made out of has come from well outside our galaxy, travelling millions of light-years,” Farrar said in an interview.

Ponder that for a moment.

Go ahead – ponder it now.

Now how insignificant do you feel?