Project Hail Mary

by Andy Weir

Cool thing about pendulums: The time it takes for one to swing forward and backward—the period—won’t change, no matter how wide it swings. If it’s got a lot of energy, it’ll swing farther and faster, but the period will still be the same. This is what mechanical clocks take advantage of to keep time. That period ends up being driven by two things, and two things only: the length of the pendulum and gravity.

“What is the actual name of the North Star?” “Polaris!”

“Believe it or not, light has momentum,” I said. “It exerts a force. If you were out in space and you turned on a flashlight, you’d get a teeny, tiny amount of thrust from it.”

“What would you call an organism that exists on a diet of stars?” I struggled to remember my Greek and Latin root words. “I think you’d call it ‘Astrophage.’”

Human beings have a remarkable ability to accept the abnormal and make it normal.

pantomime.

rudimentary.

I told Rocky I’d be back in two hours and I wouldn’t want him to think humans are untrustworthy. I mean … we’re pretty untrustworthy, but I don’t want him to know that.

trudge

supplication.

admonishment.

infuriating!

embezzled

Sometimes, the stuff we all hate ends up being the only way to do things.

reminiscent

scamper

He’s a monostome—that is, the waste comes out the same opening that food goes into.

“Discrepancy

wavelengths between 380 nanometers and 740 nanometers.”

think animal intelligence, ultimately, has to be faster than gravity.”

derelict

scrabble