The Voyage of Metals in the Universe from Cosmological to Planetary
  Scales: the need for a Very High-Resolution, High Throughput Soft X-ray
  Spectrometer
  Metals form an essential part of the Universe at all scales. Without metals
we would not exist, and the Cosmos would look completely different. Metals are
primarily born through nuclear processes in stars. They leave their cradles
through winds or explosions, and then start their journey through space. This
can lead them in and out of astronomical objects on all scales, ranging from
comets, planets, stars, entire galaxies, groups and clusters of galaxies to the
largest structures of the Universe. Their wanderings are fundamental in
determining how these objects, and the entire universe, evolve. In addition,
their bare presence can be used to trace what these structures look like. The
scope of this paper is to highlight the most important open astrophysical
problems that will be central in the next decades and for which a deep
understanding of the Universe-wandering metals, their physical and kinematical
states and their chemical composition represents the only viable solution. The
majority of these studies can only be efficiently performed through High
Resolution Spectroscopy in the soft X-ray band.
