Cosmic Perspectives from Amid the Stars:
Astronomy Blog

When you look up at the night sky, you’re not only looking out into space, but also back in time. You’re seeing stars that exist hundreds to thousands of light-years away, and that means you’re looking back hundreds to thousands of years into the past.

Are we alone? It’s a question that humanity has long asked itself. Is the universe beyond this rock we call Earth teeming with life, or is biology a fluke never to be repeated? The only way to know the answers is to hunt for them ourselves.

We live in an age of light. At night, we travel by streetlight and read by lamplight. The dark of night no longer hinders our ability to simply live. As much of a blessing as this feels, it can also be a curse. Less than a hundred years ago, anyone, anywhere, could look up into the sky and see the bright swath of the Milky Way, but that becomes less and less true every day for those living in the modern age of electric lighting.