Lisa Kaltenegger > Quotes

“The speed limit on light, that might sound frustrating, is what allows us this privileged view of most of the universe’s past, helping us sketch the evolution of the whole cosmos.”
― Lisa Kaltenegger, Alien Earths: The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos

“Every field has its own vocabulary, and the same word can mean different things to scientists in different disciplines, not to mention to nonscientists.”
― Lisa Kaltenegger, Alien Earths: The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos

“The image of our tiny Pale Blue Dot reminds me every day of just how beautiful and, at the same time, how fragile our world is. All that protects us is a thin sliver of the atmosphere. Most of our air is contained in the first six miles (~ ten km) above the ground. If you could go on a leisurely road trip straight to space, let’s say at about thirty miles (~ fifty km) an hour, it would require only about a dozen minutes to pass through that whole region. If the Earth were the size of an apple, our atmosphere would be thinner than the apple’s skin. To survive, humanity has to take extremely good care of this thin layer that protects us from certain doom.”
― Lisa Kaltenegger, Alien Earths: The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos