New research suggests that the carbon that serves as the building blocks of life “took the long way around” the galaxy before coming together to make up our bodies here on Earth.

The scientists behind this research discovered that carbon and other elements don’t just sit placidly in galaxies after being forged by stars and dispersed by supernova explosions.

Instead, these elements hitch a ride on tremendous cosmic currents called “the circumgalactic medium” that leads them out of their galaxies into intergalactic space and then back in to serve as the building blocks of new stars, planets, moons, and even you.