Light Years Quotes

“I have looked further into space than ever human being did before me. I have observed stars of which the light, it can be proved, must take two million years to reach the earth.

[Having identified Uranus (1781), the first planet discovered since antiquity.]”
― William Herschel

“I think that the event which, more than anything else, led me to the search for ways of making more powerful radio telescopes, was the recognition, in 1952, that the intense source in the constellation of Cygnus was a distant galaxy—1000 million light years away. This discovery showed that some galaxies were capable of producing radio emission about a million times more intense than that from our own Galaxy or the Andromeda nebula, and the mechanisms responsible were quite unknown. ... [T]he possibilities were so exciting even in 1952 that my colleagues and I set about the task of designing instruments capable of extending the observations to weaker and weaker sources, and of exploring their internal structure.”
― Martin Ryle

“Their life was two things: it was a life, more or less—at least it was the preparation for one—and it was an illustration of life for their children.”
― James Salter, Light Years

“If we don't allow ourselves to be happy, then what are we really fighting for?”
― Kass Morgan, Supernova