“Death,” wrote Rilke in a beautiful 1923 letter, “is our friend precisely because it brings us into absolute and passionate presence with all that is here, that is natural, that is love.” The beloved poet may well have been a secret astrophysicist, for his immortal words contain the poetics of the universe’s birth, its eventual death, and the enchanting mystery of the cosmic blink between the two.

That poetic and enthralling science is what South African cosmologist and TED Fellow Renée Hložek explores in this fascinating animated short from TED-Ed:

Lest we forget, “thinking about death clarifies your life” — what is true on the scale of the personal seems at least as true on the scale of the cosmic.

Complement with Carl Sagan on how stars are born, live, and die, then see more excellent TED Ed animated primers on what makes a hero, how you know you exist, why playing music benefits your brain more than any other activity, how melancholy enhances creativity, why bees build perfect hexagons, and Plato’s parable for the nature of reality.