Exploring Space and Beyond

People have always looked into the sky and tried to explain what they saw. Some early civilizations created fantastic stories to explain the patterns above us. Our modern scientific understanding shows the truth is more extraordinary than any of these tales. Some small dots of light in the sky are actually enormous objects called galaxies, made up of billions of stars, some so far away that it took billions of years for the light to reach us. These galaxies are shaped, not by the exploits of gods, but by a whole range of incredible objects, like black holes in space from which nothing can ever escape.

Do you want to visit Mars? Someday, you may get a chance. Several countries and companies have plans for crewed missions to Mars. Elon Musk, a famous inventor and founder of the company SpaceX, is planning one of those missions for 2026. But he has even bigger visions. In a 2021 speech, he said that he wants to “build a city on Mars to become a spacefaring civilization, a multi-planet species. ”