A stellar nursery in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Photo: NASA / Space Telescope Science Institute

A stellar nursery in the Large Magellanic Cloud. Photo: NASA / Space Telescope Science Institute

 

As a child I lay in the desert sand under the Australian night sky marveling at the stars and the infinite universe. But it was only later, when I learned that light takes time to travel, that the wonder turned into sheer astonishment. Those photons, scientists said, had departed their stars hundreds or even a thousand years before. Each bit of starlight then, was carrying an image of its past. In looking at stars I was looking back in time, a revelation that shook my young mind….

Read the rest of this essay over at the Canadian Science Writers’ Association.