It’s okay to be a failed star or a dwarf planet — cosmapoetica

I think you can be a failed star and still protect the whole solar system, still help life thrive, still maintain that balance that ultimately affects the presence of every single thing in existence.

I wonder how this applies to humans who think of themselves as failures—why they do not understand that it’s okay if they cannot be the sun. It’s okay if they are the failed star. It’s okay if they cannot transition from a planet to a star, no matter how big, how beautiful, how amassed they are, or how much effort and struggle they put in.

They are designed to be that planet. They are designed to be the failed stars. Everyone has their own purpose, and they do not have to find it; they have to remember it. It is ingrained in their bones—the purpose.

And then there are brown dwarfs, often called failed stars, which never gather enough mass to sustain nuclear fusion like the sun. They are neither destined to become stars nor decreed to be planets. Yet, they are not useless. They radiate heat, influence the orbits of celestial bodies, and exist as vital pieces in the cosmic puzzle.

They are not mistakes; they are simply what they were meant to be—intermediate, not stars yet not planets either, occupying a space that still matters.

Perhaps humans, too, misunderstand failure. We chase transformation, thinking we must become something else to matter. But maybe purpose is not about becoming; it is about remembering. Even if we are not the sun, even if we are the failed stars, we still hold gravity, still radiate warmth, still shape the lives around us in ways unseen.

It’s okay to be the failed star among planets in a star system, whether it’s solar or another. It’s okay to be a dwarf planet as well. It’s okay to be Jupiter. It’s okay to be Eris. It’s okay to be Haumea.

It’s okay to be anything other than the sun and earth for someone’s existence. The sun isn’t the only force that helps life exist. And the earth is not the only place where life exists.

It’s okay to simply exist—because just existing matters for the universe to exist.

— Sadia Hakim | Astropoetica Series