Space

Big questions and odd objects out among the stars.

Reading

• The Fermi Paradox (Article) — if there are 100 billion billion Earth-like planets, where is everybody? Tim Urban walks the “Great Filter” and the unsettling possible answers with rigour, humour, and existential wonder.
• Blue straggler (Article) — stars in a cluster that look far too young and blue for their age, likely rejuvenated by colliding with, or siphoning mass from, a neighbour.

Interactive

• Lightyear.fm (Interactive) — “a journey through space, time, & music” by Mike Lacher, Mika Chernov, Brian Moore, and Chris Baker: scroll away from Earth and the Billboard hits still arriving at each distance get older, over 120 years of charts spread across 100+ light years. It notes the honest caveat that real broadcasts would fade into background noise within a few light years.