: The book also seems to suggest that accepting the mysteries that surround us can sometimes be a better course of action than always striving for answers. Of course, the book is also concerned with the dark aspects of being human, the inverse of that large wonder. Sometimes those answers set beautiful things into motion: compassion, hope, a desire to create something that will last.

I think humans have always felt watched back by whatever is out there flickering in the distance. What excites me is what the imagination creates not simply in explanation of what is there, but also to explain or justify the feeling of awe and attachment that the heavens inspire.

Can space - its vastness and mysteries - help ground us here on Earth ? : In some of these poems, the narrator seems to seek perspective, or relief, by gazing at the heavens. The nearest galaxies-the larger, brighter, well-defined spirals and ellipticals-thrived about 1 billion years ago, when the cosmos was 13 billion years old. The smallest, reddest galaxies, about 100, may be among the most distant known, existing when the universe was just 800 million years old. The snapshot includes galaxies of various ages, sizes, shapes, and colors. This view of nearly 10,000 galaxies is called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field.

Life on mars author pulitzer