Letters from an Astrophysicist

by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Real photo. Real object in our Milky Way galaxy called the “Helix Nebula,” a.k.a.ngc7293. Taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The urge to look up, see something beautiful, and call it God is strong. In the first century AD, the famous astronomer and mathematician Claudius Ptolemy felt that way as he studied the motions of the planets against the background stars and penned: “When I trace at my pleasure the windings to and fro of the Heavenly Bodies, I no longer touch earth with my feet. I stand in the presence of Zeus himself, and take my fill of ambrosia.”† One of my favorite quotes of all time. What has always intrigued me, however, are all the other things that go on in nature, in this same universe, yet people do not feel compelled to wax poetic about the majesty of God. Like rapid-growth cancer cells, fatal birth defects, killer tsunamis, killer earthquakes, killer volcanoes, killer hurricanes, killer asteroids, the Ebola virus, lethal parasites, malaria-carrying mosquitoes, plague-carrying rats, Lyme disease, heart disease, stroke, appendicitis, species extinction . . . the list is long—practically endless. And how about the equally long list of ghastly things to look at in nature? Such as a close-up image of the dust-mite, or a close-up view of the underbelly of a tarantula, or the sucking jaws of a leech, or the slimy trail of a banana slug, or the flea-infested underbelly of a dog . . . and so forth. So when I see the Helix nebula, I simply see a strikingly beaut...