The Stellar Survey for...a few weeks of time

Hi friends. It’s been a while, and I’ve continued to be sick and resting and fretting about the content-creation nature of Substack and my place in this little ecosystem. Thinking a lot about what writing means to me, and how sharing all of that gets bound up in strange ways for me when money gets involved.

I’ll have more things to say on that in a few days, when the Sunday Letter returns.

But! In the meantime, the dazzling life of space continues. Aren’t we lucky?

• What exactly ARE the odds of alien contact, anyway? | Here’s an old article from Nautilus that has Things To Say.

• How close are we to drilling for water on Mars? | Once again: is drilling on another planet—for water or oil or anything—really the best idea that we have? But don’t listen to me, I’m not even a scientist.

• The largest-ever map of the universe’s super-massive black holes has been released. | How cool, and also how slightly terrifying.

• Speaking of black holes—want to fall into one? No? Me neither! | Lucky for us, NASA has produced a simulation of this very experience. Cue the awe and the terror, again.

• How logic and reasoning can fail us in science—because the Universe is fundamentally absurd! | Personally, I find the reality of an absurd Universe intensely comforting. Not quite sure why.

• Artemis astronauts will carry plants to the moon in 2026. | I feel like this could easily be where the sci-fi horror movie starts, but I’m sure everyone has everything under control.

• Astronomers find 49 new galaxies in record time. | 49 new galaxies. Hello, galactic neighbours! *waves*

• The JWST gets to the heart of a smoking starburst galaxy. | “Cigar Galaxy” Messier 82 is wild about stars. Isn’t it pretty?

• The largest digital camera ever will look into the dark universe. | Its 3,200 mexapixels put my trusty old Olympus (2006, 8 megapixels, tyvm) to shame.

• Ed Dwight is going to space! | Huzzah!

• New dark-matter hunting expedition has given results. | Isn’t the universe amazing?

• Does science fiction shape the future? | I think so, but then, I’m not biased at all.

• Strawberries in space! | With a side-helping of application for growing food in harsher conditions. Neat stuff.

• Voyager 1 is back in business! | ( Late news, I know, but oh well. Isn’t this amazing? Humanity fixed this probe from 24.3 billion kilometres away.)

• The ISS may be more visible through May. | Keep an eye out!

• Should we send endangered animals’ DNA into space? | I know it’s not an either/or situation, but maybe we should also increase focus on making sure they’re not…endangered in the first place?

• What do you know: warp drives might, in fact, be possible one day. | Somewhere in the future, Jean-Luc Picard is nodding and saying You will make it so.

• Should there be guidelines for how we conduct ourselves on Mars? | I feel like we keep asking ourselves versions of this question when the answer is obviously, yes, why would you even think otherwise.

• Interstellar cloud reaches for the stars. | Space. She takes a pretty picture, doesn’t she.

• Could alien life be hiding in the rings of Saturn or Jupiter? | Your guess is as good as mine! (Probably better, in fact.)

• And finally: solar bursts could supercharge auroras this weekend, and bring them to more of the Northern Hemisphere! | Watch for it, all my fellow aurora lovers!

The cometary globule God's Hand as seen by the Dark Energy Camera. (Image credit: CTIO/NOIRLab/DOE/NSF/AURA). Photo originally published on Space.com.

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