Night Sky

Watching a peaceful death

by

Watching a peaceful death of a human being reminds us of a falling star; one of a million lights in a vast sky that flares up for a brief moment only to disappear into the endless night forever. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Forty years as an

by

Forty years as an astronomer have not quelled my enthusiasm for lying outside after dark, staring up at the stars. It isn’t only the beauty of the night sky that thrills me. It’s the sense I have that some of those points of light are the home stars of beings not so different from us, … Read more

The car shot forward

by

The car shot forward straight into the circle of light, and suddenly Arthur had a fairly clear idea of what infinity looked like. It wasn’t infinity in fact. Infinity itself looks flat and uninteresting. Looking up into the night sky is looking into infinity—distance is incomprehensible and therefore meaningless. The chamber into which the aircar … Read more

For with my intuition

by

For with my intuition I knew that this man was repeating a pattern over and over again: courting a woman with his intelligence and sympathy, claiming her emotionally; then, when she began to claim in return, running away. And the better a woman was, the sooner he would begin to run. I knew this with … Read more

Here is something you

by

Here is something you have to understand about stories: They point you in the right direction but they can’t take you all the way there. Stories are crescent moons; they glimmer in the night sky, but they are most exquisite in their incomplete state. Because people crave the beauty of not-knowing, the excitement of suggestion, … Read more

Who are we? And

by

Who are we? And to me that’s the essential question that’s always been in science fiction. A lot of science fiction stories are – at their very best – evocations of that question. When we look up at the night sky and wonder, Is there anyone else out there? we’re also asking who we are … Read more