Astronomy Quotes by Seth Shostak

24 Astronomy quotes by Seth Shostak

All Astronomy quotes Seth Shostak’s page

Seth Shostak’s work bridges the gap between rigorous science and public curiosity. Twenty‑four quotes give you a concise look at his thoughtful take on the universe.

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While it may be disappointing, I have to confess to people who ask for my insights on the meaning of it all…

Seth Shostak

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If gravity were somewhat stronger or weaker, stars wouldn't exist, and neither would you. And the same can be said of other…

Seth Shostak

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Star Trek's genial premise is that the cosmos is flush with intelligent species, and our descendants will interact with them face-to-face, thanks…

Seth Shostak

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Certainly the history of astronomy shows that every time we thought we were special, we were wrong.

Seth Shostak

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A practical way to travel between the stars is a must-have for space opera, and a sine qua non for our frequently…

Seth Shostak

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The stars look the same from night to night. Nebulae and galaxies are dully immutable, maintaining the same overall appearance for thousands…

Seth Shostak

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The mission of NASA's Kepler telescope is to lift the scales from our eyes and reveal to us just how typical our…

Seth Shostak

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The principal reason for the universe's poker face is that its constituents are far away. Stars careen through space, and galaxies spin…

Seth Shostak

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Are we the only members of the Galaxy that can actually understand what a galaxy is? Could Homo sapiens really be the…

Seth Shostak

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Clearly, enriching the cosmos with heavy elements takes a while. So there's inevitably an interval between the sterile aftermath of the Big…

Seth Shostak

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We've accounted for 95 percent of all the stars in the Milky Way. The other 5 percent are big, bright stars -…

Seth Shostak

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I got interested in astronomy at the age of 8 because I was looking at an atlas of the planets in my…

Seth Shostak

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The central region of the Milky Way, known as the bulge, is stuffed with literally tens of billions of stars. And most…

Seth Shostak

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Scientists - who prefer explanations subject to laboratory tests - figure that everything we see today was as inevitable as wrinkles, once…

Seth Shostak

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Studying Sol's interior by looking for analogous patterns on its incandescent face is known as helioseismology, an active - if largely unpronounceable…

Seth Shostak

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The overwhelming bulk of the cosmos is deathly quiet. But here and there - on worlds where matter is thick and conditions…

Seth Shostak

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Estimates are that at least 70 per cent of all stars are accompanied by planets, and since the latter can occur in…

Seth Shostak

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We're not just any star stuff, most of which is humdrum hydrogen and listless helium. Our bodies include fancier ingredients like carbon,…

Seth Shostak

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The cosmos is three times as old as Earth. During most of creation's 14 billion year history, our solar system wasn't around.…

Seth Shostak

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Five centuries ago, Copernicus upset humanity's applecart with the news that the Earth is not the center of the cosmos. It could…

Seth Shostak

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If the cosmos isn't finite, then far, far away, floating duplicates of your brain - with all its experiences, thoughts, and emotions…

Seth Shostak

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Recent results from astronomers who study the occasional gravitational lensing of unknown worlds by intervening stars suggest that orphan planets could be…

Seth Shostak

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The bottom line is, like, one in five stars has at least one planet where life might spring up. That's a fantastically…

Seth Shostak

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It will be the mother of all telescopes, and you can bet it will do for astronomy what genome sequencing is doing…

Seth Shostak

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Studying Sol's interior by looking for analogous patterns on its incandescent face is known as helioseismology, an active - if largely unpronounceable - research…

Seth Shostak

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Some pundits have proposed that the aliens have come here to breed with us. Apparently, too much bike riding or something similar has rendered…

Seth Shostak

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As far as I can tell, the only unambiguous consequence of the claimed invasion of Earth by beings from another star system has been…

Seth Shostak

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Look, science is hard, it has a reputation of being hard, and the facts are, it is hard, and that's the result of 400…

Seth Shostak

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Give consideration to the fact that alien astronomers could have scrutinized Earth for more than 4 billion years without detecting any radio signals, despite…

Seth Shostak

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In a movie, it's often important to have aliens whose gestures and facial expressions can be 'read' by humans. And in the days before…

Seth Shostak

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Sure, nobody will make a fortune if we figure out why the Big Bang happened. But just about everyone would like to know.

Seth Shostak

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If you could drive straight down, into a tunnel bored through the crust of the planet, you'd hit this molten mess in about an…

Seth Shostak

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While I have always thought that the motivation for looking for E.T. was both self-evident and patently worthy, it's possible that I'm a victim…

Seth Shostak

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I studied Latin in high school, and I was reading stuff from Cicero. And that signal took a few thousand years to get to…

Seth Shostak

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About the only things that are unique to Earth are our biota and our culture. If aliens ever come here, they'd most likely be…

Seth Shostak

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This plucky NASA telescope is able to find planets en masse. If you compare planet hunting to prospecting for gold, then Kepler is equivalent…

Seth Shostak

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The most attractive habitats for synthetic sentience might be the vicinities of exceptional sources of energy - for example black holes, or even the…

Seth Shostak

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Buying insurance is no one's idea of fun. And it's especially easy to berate something as funky-sounding as writing checks to defend our neighborhoods…

Seth Shostak

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Plate tectonics is not all havoc and destruction. The slow movement of continents and ocean floors recycles carbon dioxide dissolved in the oceans back…

Seth Shostak

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